May you live in interesting times.....

..... indeed.

2014 seems to be one thing after another.  In January, the first week back to school brought the news that Tom’s prep school was likely to close at the end of the academic year.   After careful consideration we decided to take Tom out of that school, and luckily we managed to get him a place very quickly at the local state school down the road.  He’s been there 2 weeks now and the transition has been relatively painless for him.  I say luckily because the state sector schools in this area are all ‘full’ and places are not guaranteed in your first choice.

From the 7th to the 13th January we were affected by flooding from the overloaded mains sewer drain (‘hydraulic overload’) backing up and spilling out from our inspection chambers.  Our neighbours' drains also flooded into our rear garden for the same period of time.  (See previous blogs).  I telephoned Thames Water daily to report the incident, and, as previous incidents of this nature had normally receded within 12-24 hours, I decided to take my obvious complaint and concerns further.

I contacted both my District Councillors, who happen to live further down the road, my County Councillor, and also lodged my concerns with the Environment Agency.  As a result of my discussions with them I have had a visit from a man from the Environmental Health Department of the local Council, and also had a meeting arranged  for later today with my County Councillor, her contact from Thames Water, and a Thames Water Asset Manager.  Unfortunately this meeting has been postponed due to the developing flooding emergency and the direct problems in the Oxfordshire area of the Thames basin.

We are presently enduring further flooding which began on Thursday 6th February, and which I have again reported to Thames Water on a daily basis.  Because the water table has been unable to drain away since January floods, and the rain has been unprecedented 'since records began', the current situation with our flooding is worse than before.

8.2.14  The deepest water at the furthest point from our back door (outside the 'playhouse') - but it went on for 4 days again and the land naturally dips down towards the end of the garden.

8.2.14  Roly going where my wellies just went!

8.2.14  deja-vu?  We've been here before....

9.2.14.  This is the sunken ornamental pond in the dis-used garden of the derelict property (awaiting demolition) next door to us.  Some of this is rainwater.  Some of this is ground water.  Most of this is run-off from the flooding in my garden these past 4 days....

I have spoken again today with my County Councillor about the ongoing problem, and she is confident the planned meeting with Thames Water will be re-arranged for later this week.  I have been in contact with the Environment Agency again, and yesterday e-mailed photos of the ‘hydraulic overload’ flooding to them, which is affecting 4 properties including ours.

On top of all this, we have now got electricians in the house who are checking our circuits because we  have had something tripping the fuse box since Friday.  There is a possibility that the flood/groundwater has risen under the house and is tripping the circuit from there.

So, we try to remain cheerful in the face of all this adversity.  There’s no point in getting stressed, and we’re taking positive action rather than pointing the finger of blame and stewing about it.  That way madness lies.

On a brighter note, the snowdrops are everywhere, I've started my new job at Witney Library and am loving it, and I had lovely day out at the WI’s Denman College making marmalade last week.

I’d fill you in on all the details myself, but it turned out that a fellow marmalade lady also writes a blog and she has covered it much better than I would have done - so for marmalade enthusiasts read on:

http://missreevesrecipes.wordpress.com/2014/02/08/hate-marmalade-learn-how-to-make-it-its-liquid-sunshine-too/  

You may see photos of yours truly if you look closely, and there are of course, photos of marmalade!

Keeping it real!  Kat  :)

Izzy whizzy, let's get busy!

So..... to start the year, we've had exceptional flooding with rainwater overflowing from the sewers back into our and our neighbours' drains.  This lasted from 7th January and finally completely subsided by 13th January.  Our water services provider, Thames Water, took note of my daily call to log the situation and explained that the rain had put extra pressure on their drains and they were doing all they could about the 'hydraulic overload', but there was nothing they could actually do to alleviate my situation.

The situation was unusual for us in as much as when we've had previous incidents of this rainwater overflow/spillage from the drains, it has usually gone down within 12-24 hours.  And, our neighbours' drains may overflow a little, and drain off into our garden.  But this time the garden was awash for four and a half days, which meant that the hens thought they were ducks, and I'm not sure what impact the effluent will have had on the vegetable patch, or the health of my birds.  Needless to say, I'm on their case, and my County Councillor called me today (thanks Zoe) to see if Thames Water had called me back after she'd contacted them on my behalf (they hadn't).

So.... here's what we had to contend with, for over 4 days, in the hen patch...

Two weeks down the line, and one of the hens has gone into a serious moult. Which was unusual because they'd both moulted November/December ready for the winter.  The third week of January is not a good time to moult.  Now, the question is, was the floodwater contamination somehow responsible for the hen moulting again, or was it entirely a coincidence?

This is her today.  Actually, she'd lost most of the feathers at the weekend, so you can see the re-growth starting, and it took me a while to think of a solution...  and with a few clicks on a certain search engine I found some instructions to make...

Can you guess?  It took around 4 hours.  Well, it's been a long time since I'd knitted anything.  I found some wool I'd got in my 'projects' corner, and following the instructions from 't'internet' I started Tuesday evening, did some on Wednesday morning, and finished it off today.

Here's 'Brownie' modelling this year's winter collection hen jacket - seen in all the best hen runs around the land.

This is not a joke.  There's a cold snap coming, so I hope she feels the benefit.  I won't go into detail about trying to catch a hen single-handed (I've usually got one or two children to help me herd them into a corner), but she made me have it for a while, and then I had to catch her a second time as she'd pecked and pulled and managed to undo one of the buttons to try to free herself of this unseemly contraption....  so the second time I went in armed with safety pins.... ha!

Ah me.  It's all happening here.

Nighty night.  Kat.

The day my hair went purple...

I missed by blogger birthday.  Last year on 9th November I dipped my toe in the blogosphere for the first time, and I'm still here (just) having my quiet rants to myself...

Busy weekend, went out last night to celebrate Howard's 40th birthday.  He was the youngest of the group and his wife Lesley had organised a meal out early as they're invited to a wedding on his birthday.  The night out was 2 days after Simon's birthday, so he celebrated being older quietly... he was 48. The evening was very pleasant at the Vyne and Spice in Long Wittenham.  Food very good, but I am a stick in the mud and eating late makes me a bit discombobulated. We got home at midnight, so quite tired today.

Today we drove to see our friends Martin and Rachel and their children Eliot and Abigail who live in Carey in Herefordshire. SatNav said 2 hrs there, 2 hrs back, but took 5 hrs travelling because of the weather/traffic.  The worst floods were on the A417 before Faringdon - which I've been driving through all week on the school run.  There was evidence of flooding and flash flooding on the single track roads that lead to Carey, and even though that road skirts the river (can't remember it's name) and was close to flooding we got through safely.  The river was a magnificent red colour from the local  soil, and there was debris floating along a quite a lick, so it did add a little edge to the journey...

That said, had a lovely lunch with our friends and a good catch-up.  Took my camera and forgot to take any photos.  doh.  Must be going potty.

So, for a change I thought I'd colour my hair.  The box said 'rich chestnut, semi-permanent, suitable for less than 50% grey' which I thought ticked the boxes.  Well.  Not exactly chestnut.  More of an aubergine, plum, purple sort of colour, and that was two weeks ago.  'Washes out in 24 washes'...  and it has faded and I'm quite happy with it.  But I hadn't coloured my hair for about 4 years, so it's been a bit of a talking point for quite a few people I've bumped into.  Mostly complimentary, and it's only hair, so will grow out eventually.  I may keep it that way.  We'll see.

Will keep it short tonight as am tired from the weekend's excitement!

ttfn. Kat :)