The return of the garden gnome

Please read the links.

A few weeks ago the drain, that the Irish flag layer tinkered with back in July, blocked. It is my husbands' department to unblock drains so when he was unable to get the drain rods down the drain he contacted the Irish flag layer (aka the garden gnome) and asked him to return to sort out the problem with the drain. For about two weeks, until the Irish flag layer returned, we had food from the waste disposal strewn around the patio, that he had laid in August. Water would go down the drain in small quantities. Trying to put too much water down at one time resulted in the area around the drain being flooded. You are probably thinking that it serves us right for having a waste disposal. We live in the country. If food is put into the dustbin bag animals invariably sabotage it and we have the contents of our rubbish bag strewn around our drive and out into the lane. The alternative could be to put the food on the compost heap, but not all food is suitable for this method of disposal and putting food on the compost heap attracts animals to it. Consequently, a waste disposal is quite a sensible thing to have.

After several phone calls between the Irish flag layer and my husband, the Irish flag layer and me, my husband and the Irish flag layer and myself and the Irish flag layer, he phoned one morning to say that he was in the area and would be round shortly provided the weather was not 'too wet'. It wasn't when he phoned but not long afterwards I decided that it probably was and that he would not turn up. It was that very cold Tuesday, at the end of October, when it rained, snowed and sleeted. There was an unexpected (on my part) knock on the front door. I opened it to find two drowned rats - the Irish flag layer and a mate. I was asked if it was 'too wet' for me to open the side gate so that they could get round to the patio at the back. 'How wet is too wet?' I thought. OK, the path was flooded and the garden was very wet but I have a cagoule and a pair of wellington boots. So I dressed myself up for the wet weather and opened the gate for him then retreated indoors to kept an eye on things from the kitchen. As it happens the gutter above the drain is broken and it drips. I am sure that having icy water trickling down your neck concentrates the mind and there is a knack to removing the inner sleeve of the drain. He managed to clear the drain in a few minutes. No chance of a shirtless flag layer today. He was wearing an acid yellow, fluorescent jacket with a hood. The garden gnome had become a hoody!

Knowing me knowing you

I was gifted this meme by imbeingheldhostage about ten days ago. I do not think that I can put off doing it any more. So here goes:

(A) Four places that I go over and over

1. Tesco
   I go to three different stores depending on how the mood takes me. Does that count as three? I suppose not.
   
2. My greenhouse at the end of our garden
   I go twice a day in the summer and once a week in the winter
   
3. Charity shops
   To get rid of our junk but I usually come home with someone else's junk
   
4. The gym
   I do not actually go but would if I had not had housemaid's knee on and off since June

(B) Four people who e-mail me regularly

1. Friends reunited
   
2. Able labels
3. Amazon
4. The National Lottery

(C) Four of my favourite places to eat

1. Pizza Piazza, Dorking
   We regularly ate here when we lived in Surrey
   
2. The Italian Taste, Surbiton
   We used to eat here when we visited my mother in law
3. The Bunbury Arms, Stoak, Cheshire
4. The Goshawk, Mouldsworth, Cheshire
   It would have been easier to have listed four places that are not worth returning to.
   

(D)Four places you would rather be

1. On a beach on a desert island
2. In our garden
   
3. Anywhere by the sea
   
4. Not at work
   

(E) Four TV shows you could watch over and over

1. Silent Witness
2. Coast/Britain from Above type documentaries
   They always seem to be filmed on a sunny day
3. Gardeners World
   I didn't care for Monty Don but I think that Toby Buckland is rather sweet and he knows a thing or two about gardening
4. Ten Years Younger
   I can dream
   
   And now for the four people who I think will respond - the dotterel, Maggie May, Moannie and Strawberry Jam Anne. I am not telling them. Let's just see if they read this and are up for it.
   
   

On reflection

There has not been much to report on the renovation front recently. This is because we try to concentrate on the cottage in the winter and the garden in the summer. Also the small jobs, which we do ourselves, tend to be straight forward and incident free, but in the last few weeks not everything has gone to plan. We have been without a full length mirror in the bedroom since the old bedroom was taken out, about 18 months ago, if not longer. Well, one wet Saturday my husband decided that we would rectify this issue. So off we went to purchase a new mirror, which would need to be fixed inside one of the wardrobe doors. By the time we returned home with our new mirror and tube of mirror glue it was no longer wet and an afternoon in the garden beckoned. The mirror then hung around in a corner of the bedroom for a few weeks whilst we gardened.

Fast forward to last weekend, when it was wet and I charmed (threatened really) my husband into gluing the mirror onto the wardrobe door. This involved removing the wardrobe door and lying it flat on the carpet until the mirror glue had dried and it was safe to re fix the wardrobe door. My husband had applied the glue when he realised that the instructions did not state how long it took for the glue to dry and I noticed that the glue was ten days out of date. Yes, even glue has an expiry date these days! Too late, now, to take it back and complain. We left the mirror for an hour or so, to dry, which was probably not long enough, but my husband can be impatient. I helped him screw the wardrobe door back into place and we carefully shut it. He collected up his tools and I headed into another room. As my husband descended the stairs the was a thump. 'What could that be?' we both thought. Really it could only be one thing. I gently opened the wardrobe door to find that the mirror had slid off the door. There are advantages to having a wardrobe stuffed full of clothes. Luckily the mirror was unharmed. I then had to spend, I don't know how long, removing the glue from the inside of the wardrobe door and the back of he mirror. We now have another tube of mirror glue and will be repeating this exercise, with I hope more success, the next time we have a wet weekend. What is really annoying is that my husband has done this before, in our previous house, without any problems.

Update

November 23, 2008 - the mirror is now up. This time we used Evo-stik mirror adhesive. Last weekend we used some unbranded glue which was a complete waste of money.