Fiddler on the Roof

4th February 2025

Brian may be Superman, but he can’t do everything. We need to contribute in the grounds where we can. My main input there to date has been riding the Beast (the mower). Unfortunately that ground to a shuddering (and hopefully temporary) halt a couple of weeks ago when I smashed into a rock hard tree root – or was it a flagstone? Same result – one of the cutting blades sheared in two and flew off in the direction of St Lucia, taking a good bit of the deck housing with it. The machine has been in Beast Hospital since, hopefully to return tomorrow restored to full health. Our insurance obviously doesn’t cover injuries to machinery so that’s another hit to the slush fund. You live and learn 🙄

The week before last Brian told me he’d be concentrating on pruning and clearing last Friday – no leaf raking. “You should call dis place Leafville!” I guffawed at the time, but I wasn’t laughing last week when I spent three hours and filled four very large bags scratching the surface of this Sisyphean task:

Today I decided I’d muck in (very appropriate) again by clearing two gutters, which will also help with the inevitable roof repairs. We have a very old, very long ladder apparently made of lead. It’s a challenge for my scrawny physique anyway. Nonetheless I hauled it along one wall, shovelling away rich deep loam (and undoubtedly an entire miniature ecosystem) as I went, and finished with a flourish on the roof of the carport:

Phew! Hot work. That was quite enough for one session – the pool was calling. Another day, another gutter…