Blogtober day 20 - Singing in the rain (not!)

 Firstly thank you EvErYoNe 💕for your lovely comments for my last post - it seems that it either struck a chord (you also hate decorating) or made you laugh (that is a win in my books!) at my soggy foot and sock! Glad to be of service 😄

Any hoo - I've got to day 20 with something to say most days. I am a bit short of a story today so I thought I would share just a segment of my day at work - and yes it does have soggy socks (both this time) included....... sigh. Today started rather grey - the sky was a thin pathetic shade of nothing with rain forecast, so my colleague and I got started almost immediately on outside jobs and saved seed sowing, pricking and potting up, striking cuttings and a few other indoor tasks to do in the glasshouse when the volunteers landed. And as the first lady arrived it was almost as if on cue the rain started so we (armed with mugs of tea) galloped off to the glasshouse, stripped off dripping jackets and started working through the the list.

Time past really pleasantly, things were done while the rain continued to hammer down and in a way it felt rather nice being outside but inside - in the weather but out of it too.

At one point I noticed that it was getting a bit dark, so I switched on the strip lights we have along the back of the wall and we returned to work and discussed how dull it become..... when the heavens just opened and the already heavy rain became torrential. We stopped what we were doing and looked up and all I could see were the hundreds leaves being ripped off the trees and landing on the glasshouse roof. Hmmm....

Any hoo, back to work .... I went off to collect a brush to sweep up where I'd been working when I was hit on the shoulder by a gush of icy cold water! I knew exactly what it was - the gutters could not cope with the amount of rain and the water was coming IN to the glasshouse. 

I yelled to my colleague, grabbed my waterproof and dashed out still clutching the broom. I could see the problem immediately ... all those leaves gracefully sliding down the roof had accumulated in the gutters and they were overflowing! I shoved the broom head into the gutter and pushed .....

This immediately produced the biggest 'bow wave' of rainwater and sodden leaves - a most beautiful arc of icy water which flew up and over landing on me ...... my first thought was - I've filled my boots with water and I have soggy socks for the second time! It took ten minutes of sweeping and climbing up and pulling the leaves out before the water was able to go down through the gutters.  We only cleaned them last week in anticipation (and prevention) of exactly this!

The wire 'sieves' at the ends of the gutters, preventing leaves jamming the down pipes, worked so well that the leaves just filled up the entire gutter in moments of the heavy rain.  So ... for the next hour, after I stripped off my socks and wrung them out, turned my boots over and poured water out,  I walked around bare foot (I can do that) in very wet trousers - I shall definitely take myself a spare pair or wear my waterproof trousers next time (please don't let there be a next time!!)

Now as I type my boots are now sitting on the woodburner (it has a double top so never gets super hot) and they are quietly steaming away - hope they are dry enough for me tomorrow!

Well - you gotta laugh!

#blogtober2021