Packing it in

A few days ago I noticed yet another little job that needed doing.

This is the general theme when you live in a very old house that has had minimal, and generally bodged, maintenance over the preceding forty years.

This little job was the replacement of the downpipe from the gutter that runs around the outhouse at the South Eastern end of the cottage.  It was clear that it had been broken, probably by a lawn mower, several years ago, and "repaired" with heavy duty tape. That repair had failed eons ago and it's rectification had just made it on to my to do list.

First thing this morning I headed in to Redditch and picked up a length of down pipe, a replacement bracket and a bag of ready mixed mortar.

I then spent the rest of the morning removing the damaged down pipe and getting the replacement cut to size and fitted. It should have been a relatively short job, but it was complicated by the fact that the steel screws in the brackets had rusted to the point where they did not want to come out, and I needed to fabricate a fitting to allow me to mortar a 65mm square downpipe in to a 100mm diameter circular drain pipe, whilst avoiding clogging the drainage system ... nothing is ever straightforward here.

The afternoon saw a ride out on the R1250 with Charlie. Our route took in a selection of twisty roads that took us over to Stratford, via Bidford, then out on the Shipston road, before cutting over towards Broadway. From Broadway we rode on to Childswickham, Hinton on the Green and Elmley Castle, before reaching Pershore.  Our return leg took is along the B4084 to Evesham and then back home via a few of the Lenches.*

On our return I had time for a quick drink before I needed to get clean and tidy.

30% had arranged for us to attend a taster menu at Redditch College. We were joined by Mummy Sheila and this evening's International cuisine was Mexican.

I have to say that it wasn't their best offering.  There was plenty of food and it was cooked reasonably well, but I am not a fan of sweetcorn and sweet potato fries and I bloody loathe fresh coriander.** 

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* A cluster of villages and hamlets, each of which is called a Lench e.g. Church Lench, Ab Lench, Sheriffs Lench etc.  I am informed that the name Lench comes from the Old English word "hlenc", which means "hill aside".

** Cilantro