Unexpected Things

Oh, what a day! We had to put any plans we had in mind aside after discovering a leak from the conservatory roof onto the floor tiles. ACK! It took most of the day to get a handle on it, and we still had to tackle the more of it the next day. Dale's specialized array of tools is somewhere across the ocean, so we were really blunder bussing our way towards a solution.

At the time of the leak, it wasn't raining and hadn't yet that day, so it seemed rather curious. During previous downpours we'd had up until now there hadn't been a drip from that spot. It wasn't rain. Could it be something the contractors were doing up on our roof? No, they weren't working with any water at all. We had to investigate! Ah, the gutters above - they were probably clogged with leaves since the house hadn't been occupied for 2 years ... could that be it?

We cut the roses away from the ladder in the yard, and Dale went up to investigate, trailing the hose behind him. There was a layer of slick muck in which moss was growing in the wide gutters around the conservatory roof. It was acting as a sponge, holding water and giving it time it to seep through joints and seams. Our hose water pressure is pretty low, so it took a long time to dislodge the slime. I assisted with a brush and a long piece of bamboo (used as stakes throughout the yard to hold up saplings).

Next thing we knew, the downpipe was completely clogged and water could no longer run through. In fact, water was pouring out over the top of it. We took the drain cover off, and tried jiggling a piece of wire (yes, from staking up saplings and roses) up from below but there was barely any space between the bottom of the pipe and the drain. We removed the cover off the nearest gulley pot (new word for me) but it didn't seem to be connected to our drain.

A quick investigation inside showed the drip was still constant

Dale then cut the pipe fitting (borrowing our contractor's hacksaw) in the retaining wall below, and voila! we were in the same drainage system.

Using our rudimentary 'tools' on hand (a long piece of timber from the shoddy pergola extension to act as a drain snake, and the running hose), Dale loosened debris over and over again. We alternated putting the hose in from above and below, and used different sticks to dislodge the debris. Gosh, there were multiple clogs and flushing noises as blockages loosened and came gushing out. I was having a blast! 

We finished up by filling an enormous watering can at least 6 times and pouring the contents down the pipe at high volume until the outflow was all clear and free of silt and muck. It took most of the day to solve the problem, and the next day, we had to execute the same moves on the downpipe on the other side of the conservatory. The yard is wet and soggy now from all the water throughput.

A number of concrete roof tiles broke as Dale worked on the roof, so we have to replace a few now. But best of all, no more drip!

Welsh Poppies

These cheery little beauties are colloquially known as Welsh poppies (Meconopsis cambrica), and are native to south west England and Wales. I'm delighted to have these growing in my garden, though they probably volunteered themselves.

Wales' left leaning political party, Plaid Cymru, uses a stylized representation of this flower as their logo.

Conveniences

On a visit to the convenience store this week, I was browsing next to 2 women who had just found out  that they were both from the U.S., one from Tennessee and the other from Ohio! Of course, I wasn't able to let this go without butting in to the conversation, telling them I was from Maine. None of us had American accents though, for very different reasons. What a coincidence to find 3 Americans in this tucked away, tiny town in Wales!

Our local SPAR convenience store

Many towns have stores like these with a tiny, cramped post office counter as well, which do extra transactions such as accepting Amazon returns, doing banking transactions, and buying stamps. We've had to use these facilities a few times already, one being to buy a money order and return postage for applying for our U.K Drivers Licences (we're submitting our South African ones for conversion, instead of having to take the entire theory and road test from scratch). I hope they accept them!

People we encounter keep reminding us that Wales is very 'green' (into recycling in a big way). Food waste and 3 categories of recycling (paper, plastics, glass, each associated with a particular coloured skip) are collected from our lane every week. Yard clippings and cuttings can be collected every 2 weeks if you pay extra, and everything has to fit in with the lid closed. Invasives such as Japanese knotweed and ragwort may not be disposed of in this way. General trash is collected once every 3 weeks (strictly one bin only), the argument seemingly being that after all the other frequent collections, there shouldn't be anything smelly or large to fill up a bin more often than that.

This sketch outlines the different kinds of pick-up (it doesn't include yard cuttings since that is an optional extra)

I'm very disappointed though, to learn that the filmy plastic over most food products can only be 'recycled' through a big store. It turns out that trackers in these drop off sites show that the products are not recycled, but are actually burned instead. What a farce.

An example of the kinds of packaging that can't be recycled at the kerb

The contractor working on our solar panel installation has very kindly lent Dale his 'seconds' tool bag to use until our tools arrive in the container, probably around mid-June. What a thoughtful and generous gesture. Amazing.

Aggressive Beauties

Aggressive lupines

Outcompete native species

Yet so beautiful