The dry out

The washing is hanging outside. It’s not a particularly nice day but it’s still so wet in the laundry room that it might as well be out as in.

Our gardener came yesterday. She’d seen on facebook the state of our neighbour’s garden. He’d put a picture up of his garden under 3 foot of water. She thought we would need help tidying up after the deluge, especially as yet more water was forecast. We were very grateful.

By the time she arrived I’d swept out most of the water from the garage. Nonetheless she helped move the lawnmower, my mobility scooter & power washer onto the drive. It was a windy morning yesterday so that should have helped dry them all out. She then went on to do a magnificent job of sweeping around, replacing gravel, removing soil & bark from the paths etc. “At least one thing,” she quipped, “you won’t need to worry about watering while you’re away. You’ve had enough water to keep the garden going for another month!”

I thought it was good of her to think we might need some rescuing. I’m glad to say the water had disappeared by the morning. Carol soon found though, when she stepped on the beds to weed, that water instantly pooled around her feet. The great drainage job done last year in the garden re-design obviously has done the trick. However, with the raising of the patio area it does mean the garage, shed etc. are more liable to flood if there is such a vast quantity of water in such a short period of time.

I did see our neighbour’s garden, still under a couple of feet water despite a pumping system designed to pump out the water. Our immediate neighbour joined us. He, too, had suffered some flooding with his outside buildings in the same state as ours. There had apparently been a magnificent waterfall coming through a crack in our intervening wall.

It could have been worse. The water never got into our houses. Our only long term damage was to the carpet on the laundry room floor. That was absolutely sodden. We were thinking of replacing it anyway. We’ve a spare remnant of hall carpet which we will put down once the floor has fully dried out.

When the rain came later in the day, we looked out anxiously. However, it was normal steady, quite heavy rain, not the deluge that had struck on Saturday evening. No extra lakes appearing, just a few puddles along the paths which is normal. The dry-out continues.