Well I’ve been reading my own blogs and realised I’m a little behind with the updates, so thought I’d best write an update on what we’ve been up to the last couple of weeks…..
As I’ve already mentioned, the weather has been very hot and it’s been a struggle to get things done. Andy kept saying we should put the pool up so that we could go for a dip every now and then to cool down,but I kept saying that the back garden needed to be done first as it was a mess and also needed to be flattened in order to put the pool up. I eventually gave in as the heat was getting too much and our eagerness to get things done was waning. After gathering all the rugs and blankets we could find,( that came with the house and we were going to dump), we laid them on the grass and preceded to set our pool up. It took 3 hours to fill and, although it was slightly lopsided because of the garden, it looked very inviting. Hot and sweaty by this time, we decided to jump in to cool down……oh my god, it was bloody freezing! We had bought a couple of inflatable rings to sit and float in the water, word of advice, ‘always read the label ‘. They weren’t exactly adult size as we thought so trying to sit on them and stay afloat just wasn’t going to happen, Andy’s just sunk to the bottom as soon as he sat on it and I just tipped over into the ice cold water! Suffice to say they were flung out the pool. After about an hour we decided to get out as a dark cloud had descended upon us, a storm was coming. Just our luck that when we finally decided to put the pool up, it decides to rain! It had been 35 degrees so we thought the storm brewing would just be the usual thunder, lightning and rain for about an hour….how wrong could we be! Before we knew it the heavens opened and not only did it chuck it down with rain but we were pelted with extremely large hailstones! Freaky weather or what? It was coming down with such force that we were sure the windows were going to be smashed. The thunder and lightning was above us and hovered over us for a good few hours. Quite spectacular to see as it was evening by this time and the sky was lit up by the cracking of the thunder and lightning, a bit like watching a firework display. Because of the storm we ended up with a power cut. Not usually a problem except it was extremely muggy (29 degrees) and as it was late we decided nothing else to do but go to bed, only we couldn’t have a fan on, so trying to get to sleep was a struggle. It was so hot and sticky and opening every door in the house just didn’t help. The electric did eventually come back on sometime in the early hours and it was a godsend, finally we were able to cool down and get some sleep.
We woke up to a very disheartening scene. The storm had left a trail of destruction in the garden. Our vegetables had been flattened, our huge apple tree that was full, was now only half full, the other half were on the floor,the buckets that I leave outside for the garden and hand pump were now colanders, our newly laid drainage pipe had a big hole in it, etc,etc. the garden looked like a bomb had hit it. We found half a brick on Andys van windscreen which had fallen off the chimney, luckily it hadn’t caused any damage. We were lucky compared to some people, one person we knew, his car had dents all over it and we felt for our neighbours as they are fully reliant on their crops, so it must have been soul destroying to see some of their crops ruined. It took us a day to clear up all the mess and to sort the veg plot out. It was now a case of just waiting to see if they survive. It’s funny how just a freaky storm like that can do so much damage but can also make you appreciate things more.
Since the storm we haven’t really had a chance to enjoy the pool again, in a way it’s given us the motivation to get back to sorting all the things we need to do before winter descends. Our next chore on the list is to get the bathroom completed…..finally
