Heatwaves and holes in the ground

 

It's been too hot and sticky to think, let alone do any work, or very much crochet! Thankfully it has rained today, which makes it a little cooler, though I gather it has been torrential further east.

Not long ago, a hole appeared in the pavement outside our front wall. We knew our drainpipe to the main sewer was right underneath it, and there have been a few occasions when the drain has backed up, but that had been OK for a couple of months - and then suddenly the sinkhole.  

We didn't do anything immediately because of several recent blips with Mr Bufo's health, but on a recent Tuesday I spent what seemed like forever on a 'webchat' to Southern Water, including needing to send them a photo of the hole, which at least meant they gave us a 'job number' and said they would send someone within 72 hours. By 3pm that afternoon, someone had actually arrived, and did a bit of investigation down our manhole in the front garden. He put in a report and said someone would come the next day. 

So on Wednesday morning someone came and spent a while digging and not seeing anything, so he said someone would come with a camera the next day, as he couldn't see much wrong, and left a hole which he put barriers round. 

So on Thursday 2 blokes turned up and did a bit more digging. They eventually found the problem just under the front wall, where their pipe had slipped below our outlet - so our front garden had been getting a lot of extra fertilisation - but thankfully they 'owned' it rather than saying it was our problem, and replaced the faulty pipe, then someone came and started filling it all up, so the barriered area was smaller, and finally on the Friday another gang came along and tarmac-ed over the top. 

All very Flanders and Swann. 

I have nearly finished the second of two blankets for the granddaughters. This is the first, but the second has a slightly different arrangement of motifs, and a completely different border. If it cools off a bit I will get the second one finished soon, and you might even get a new post to celebrate the fact!

More than halfway through January

Finally we are getting slightly lighter afternoons and mornings, especially at the moment with the full 'wolf' moon, which is making the thought of spring a bit more believable. Still very cold and frosty, though we haven't (?yet) had the snow of this date a few years ago.

We are also more than halfway through the Christmas cake, which I show here in all its original glory. I've used this recipe for several years now, and it always comes out well - a really heavy fruit cake, that takes weekly 'feeds' of brandy in the 6 weeks or so between making and Christmas.

To Cheer Myself Up

Trying to compensate for yet another plan going 'a-gley' - and so as not to look at the grey weather outside the window, I'm cheering myself up with some of the photos I took in Poole Park last week when the weather was rather more springlike.

Anemone blanda cheering up the side of the footpath, together with some forget-me-nots further along.

Amelanchier

Bluebells

Pen swan nest-building ...

...while the cob is on guard.

Pink Hawthorn (crataegus)

And I popped back the next day to
see that the pen was already sitting
... no sign of the cob, though!

There, now - that seems a bit more like spring!