Saturday 8th May 2021 - Funny Old Week

It’s been a funny old week, in more ways than one. For starters, the weather remains erratic and feels cool for May. With a weather warning for strong winds, we moved to safety everything in the garden that could be blown over or down. In the end, it wasn’t that bad here in the village which I put down to the wind coming overland and in the main blowing over the top of us. Other parts of the county were not so fortunate and suffered power cuts. After weeks without any substantial rainfall, and as I have already mentioned, resulting in the ground on the veg plot cracking, we have had more than enough this week to dampen the soil. We heard that snow fell in Fakenham on Thursday morning; this has to be abnormal for May. Not to be outdone, Overstrand was subject to a hail storm yesterday afternoon. Today is thoroughly miserable – it’s raining. As for tomorrow, forecasters have assured it is going to be bright and sunny with temperatures in the high teens to low twenties. They had better be right; I have bought all the ingredients for a BBQ!

We have had a water leak in the shower room. We came to this conclusion after the floor, near the basin pedestal, started to bulge. Nothing major to cause a flood but it was enough for Peter to lift the vinyl flooring and find all was not well and call in one of our village plumbers. With the shower dismantled, the source was easily identified; a slow drip from a pipe connection. This had probably been going on since we had the whole room refitted six years ago, with the moisture gradually soaking the floor boards under the shower and the adjacent area, which eventually swelled the hardboard under the vinyl floor, creating the bulge. It’s all sorted now with the tray and enclosure reinstated and a new wall panel, shower and piping installed. In addition we had the basin mixer tap replaced along with the one in the kitchen. Both are only six years old but have failed. They just don’t make things to last or be easily repaired nowadays. Gone are the times when if we had a leaking tap, Peter just dismantled it and performed an easy repair.

We have a section in our garden which although only small, I term as our woodland area. Today’s photo shows one of the clumps of bluebells that flower here each spring.