Tag: Mouland Drainage

An Avian Post

It was the raising of this manhole cover by human waste that had recently caused us to contact Greg of Mouland Drainage who provided his usual exemplary service at a Senior Citizen’s discount.

Knowing that there would be two other points requiring clearance we made them accessible to Greg as best we could. This meant the artefacts on top of the covers had to be returned in place afterwards.

Just after lunch I righted the owl and planters covering the first of

these, while the other with two filled aluminium tubs is, for fear of toppling over, beyond me now.

This year is the first that the Japanese maple above the patio bed has enjoyed colourful autumn foliage.

On this perpetually overcast, yet warm open-waistcoat weather we took a forest drive.

I negotiated the pools on Tanners Lane to photograph the beach with

its water-beaten breakwaters and

distant views over which I could discern distant honking geese in flight, without realising that they would emerge over Tanners Lane

where Jackie would be able to photograph them from much closer;

another flock crying out to those overhead;

starlings switching from wires to tree in rotation;

a buzzard keeping eyes peeled for potential prey;

and me, before I later added

a pheasant face-off on St. Leonard’s Road.

Having begun with an owl on the patio we completed today’s theme with Jackie’s nourishing chicken stewp welcoming the addition of one of yesterday’s chopped duck breasts and crusty rolls with which I drank more of the pinotage.

A Leaky Butt, Garden And Loo Refuse

With Storm Conall raging all around the south coast, yet leaving us

unscathed we transported 12 bags of green garden refuse and a leaky water butt to Efford Recycling Centre this morning and returned with what Jackie termed a glorified toilet roll holder which fits neatly in the

downstairs loo and keeps a good supply in there. This is her photo.

Martin had to negotiate a severe flood stretching some distance from Ringwood to Bransgore, no more than five miles from us.

In the dark later afternoon with a lamp strapped to his head the excellent Greg Mouland visited and cleared a drain blockage. I had only sent him an e-mail yesterday and he squeezed us in after all the rest of his work.

As Jackie said, “we got rid of an awful lot of shit today”.

This evening we dined on roast chicken; boiled new potatoes; crunchy carrots; firm pure white cauliflower with its chopped leaves; tender spinach and green beans; and tasty Brussels sprouts, with which I drank more of the Fleurie.

Draining

I have been unable to use my On Line Banking reader with my debit card for a while without getting an ERROR message. Not understanding whether the problem lay with the card or with the reader we visited the NatWest bank in Lymington to find out.

It is the reader that is at fault. Apparently the battery has run down. Because it is a sealed unit I cannot replace it, and must order a new device on line. Oh frabjous joy. Why, I wonder, did no-one tell me this would eventually happen? How was I to know the thing was battery operated, anyway? Why doesn’t it recharge itself? Is it not smart enough? I’m certainly not.

After learning this, grateful that our car is repaired, Jackie and I took refuge in a Tesco shopping trip.

The reader battery may have been drained, but we haven’t been able to drain the washing machine without flooding the path around the back of the house because the soakaway cannot take the extra load resulting from our increased occupancy.

Greg of Mouland Drainage came this afternoon to create a more effective channel.

This is the original pipe, leading to the soakaway somewhere in the garden.

Having cut a dead straight channel through the concrete floor, Greg laid a new, level, pipe to the kitchen drainage catcher;

mixed cement; and concreted over the new pipe, leaving all a great deal neater than he had found it.

This evening we all dined on Jackie’s colourful savoury rice topped with omelette; hot and spicy and salt and pepper prawn preparations; and spring rolls, with which she drank Hoegaarden and I drank more of the Côtes du Rhône.

More Smoke Than Fire

Possibly because the washing machine is currently in constant use the grey water is not leaching into the hidden soakaway in the garden as it should. Greg Mouland of Mouland Drainage visited this morning to have a look at it. The solution seems to be to insert a small channel to the near manhole where the overflow will join the drainage pipes from the kitchen.. He will fit this towards the end of the week.

We are still without a car, for which a part has been ordered and will be fitted as soon as possible.

This inspired Jackie over the last three days to make some inroads into the piles of soggy garden refuse for burning.

I spent a good deal of time today reediting two posts from Classic to Block:

A Sad Sign Of The Times
A Day Of Two Casseroles

The first of these has been recategorised as Garden.

This afternoon I took my share of attempts at incineration – more like uncontrolled smouldering in an old wheelbarrow.

This is what the piles for burning look like.

Once I had the initial burst instigated by one match and one fire lighter, we enjoyed

more smoke than fire.

This evening we all dined on Jackie’s classic cottage pie; tender runner beans; firm broccoli and carrots, with meaty gravy. The Culinary Queen drank Hoegaarden and I drank more of the Fleurie.

Nothing Here And Attempt Block Recovery

I discovered an unpleasant occurrence in the front garden yesterday. A blockage in the septic tank piping had been enough to push up a mound of detritus sufficient to shove the manhole on top of it. I had not been in that corner since before Christmas. Fortunately Greg Mouland, of Mouland Drainage was able to visit and clear it this morning. The culprit was rusty iron dropping from another decades old manhole half way down the track into the pipes below. Greg was pleasant, efficient and left the area jet washed clean.

The three earlier posts for which I recovered the pictures today were as follows:

The Angel And Blue Pig Inn
The Cot In The Kitchen
Ronald Searle Does Dickens

The first two of these were the “Nothing Here” type where clicking on an image reveals that notice. The third was of the “Attempt Block Recovery” variety. I also recategorised it as Books.

Later I read more of Balzac and published https://derrickjknight.com/2023/03/23/droll-tales-16/

Becky returned home to Southbourne early this evening and the rest of us dined on tender roast chicken and green beans with Jackie’s colourful savoury rice, with which she drank Hoegaarden and I drank more of the Nero di Troia.