Man on the roof; objective, uncertain

Having had a fair bit of trouble with our eavestroughs, it seemed like a reasonable thing to do to get them cleaned. So we called in a company who do this sort of thing.

"You've got a forest in your down spout," was one of the few things I understood. I took it to mean that things were not good, and something had better be done about it. So they did it.

When they got to the roof, things took an ugly turn. Apparently half of our shingles were in the lower eavestrough - to prove the point, one of the man (with whom I was having a bit of crack) got some out to show me. 

Thankfully all is now well. The eavestroughs are so clean, we no longer have squirrels mounting expeditions to see what is in there. Rain removes itself from the roof to the ground in an easy, single movement. 

But shingles. Bollocks. Having just found out what it will cost to replace them, we might as well start looking to move house.