Water

Night before last I was woken by rain beating down on the corrogated iron roof. In my befuddled state, for a second or two I actually thought it was a fire crackling (not an entirely illogical thought in the context of the big dry we've been having). This is the first serious rain since I moved out here and I hadn't realised how loud it could be. Too loud for me to fall easily back to sleep, especially when my mind slipped into the groove of a knotty book structure problem I have been pondering for a couple of weeks.

Anyway, it's been raining on and off now for nearly 48 hours, at least in our little valley, which seems to have its own microclimate. It did clear up enough yesterday for me to take my usual walk, along a track that has swiftly turned from deep dust to deep mud which splashed all over my legs. I had a quick and unproblematic shower when I got home, though I am usually frugal with water as I depend on rain for my tap water and there's been a distinct lack of rain.

Weird water problems set in a couple of hours later. My neighbour called to say her washing maching was broken and could she do a load of laundry in my machine. While this was running, I noticed that the kitchen hot tap was dry, and the cold tap was running hot, but engrossed in my current book project (a commission on the theme of Narnia) I ignored this oddity.

By the time the washer had finished it was apparent that this problem wouldn't go away by itself so I rang my landlady and she said her partner would come and have a look in the morning and could I leave the key out for him. I got home this afternoon to find a gift of three fresh field mushrooms at my doorstep (obviously sprung up in the rain) and the taps all running water at the appropriate temperature. (Ah, the joys of renting from lovely landlords!). I don't have an answer to the mystery of the taps yet, though my lunch companion speculated that it was to do with water pressure and pumps. I'm just very glad that water is flowing, in my house, and from the sky: into the tanks, onto the fields and my little salad garden.

Later... turns out the stopcock in the header tank was broken...