Wet dog

We woke up to an official heat alert and a forecast of 30C. It reached 28C - and thanks to a combination of cloud cover and a brisk northerly breeze, it has been quite pleasant. Had there been blue sky we would have baked.

As it was Bean got very warm on our walk, so she availed herself of S&N’s other pond (not the stinky green eutrophic one I blipped a couple of days ago) and did some serious pawing, splashing and head-ploughing. The extras go some way to explain the wet-look of the main. She had a lovely time.

After gardening at G’s all morning I had intended to do a few things Chez Mima after lunch, but once again I was happily derailed by a friend.

Today it was the soap-maker from down the road who arrived to give me a lesson in tap maintenance and repair. One of the outdoor taps has been dripping for a few days. It is hooked up to the water pump, which was therefore kicking into action every now and again to fill the vacuum in the pipe. I switched it off overnight because I found myself lying in bed at 11.30pm wide awake, waiting for it to whoosh into action.

So the S-M came along with a bag of tools and took the tap apart (after I’d turned off the water supply of course). It was the simplest of simple jobs as it turned out: the washer had perished. I was able to dismantle an unused tap and remove its functioning washer to replace the useless one.

I was shown the inner workings of the tap and all was explained in simple non-patronising language so that next time I’ll be able to do the job myself.

It was a marvellous demonstration of good-neighbourliness which earned the S-M half a dozen eggs, a small bag of plums and a cuppa.

Sheila the Doughmatua has just been fed: I’ll be mixing and proving sourdough in the morning.