Get by with a little help

From our friends. And nowhere is that more true than in the swimming pool.  Poor Bernard and Manu toiled all week. Four days of digging out the huge pile of debris and soil that washed down from the flood and by Thursday morning it was clear.

I’ve never seen the pool empty before – well not in seven years. And although it is hardly the most exciting feature of our huge garden and farm, it is vital for our summer entertaining.

And one scary thing about swimming pools – there’s no going back. I had toyed with the fantasy of just covering it up for a year. But it would either turn into a swamp and breeding ground for mosquitos as the pumps wouldn’t filter the water, or start to lift out of the ground from the underground springs that are all around these terraces.

Just emptying it out Bernard had to balance like he was at a bouncy castle party. Water was pushing the liner inwards as he was digging the soil out.

I’m grateful for Chris Banks for that top tip. Or warning. So we had no choice but to dig and dig and dig. And then clean and hose down all the gunk.

My contribution was encouragement, coffee, and hauling buckets of the excavated soil up the steps to the garden.  But Bernard and Manu had to endure the heavy lifting.

And that is one thing about this minor calamity. We are blessed with generous friends who have offered advice, strong arms and backs and encouragement from first flood to first glimmers of seeing the farm return to almost normal. (If you close your eyes, ignore the fallen stone wall and the gaping avalanche in front of the orchard.)

If I weren’t so knackered from all the physical work I’d do a jig on the newly mown lawn.  And probably trip over the wheelbarrow and do myself a serious injury.

Instead I have scuttled away to London for work and left the task of the dreaded courtyard clean up in Bernard’s capable hands.

Here’s a before shot to look at for the next week or so until I can get back out and see what miracles have been worked. I have come up with a cunning plan to get rid of the sand and muck that have ended up on the courtyard gravel. But watch this space. It will take yet more days of hauling buckets before I can present the finished picture.