24.02.2025 Oh, the irony!

 ~o~

  Monday 24th 41F/5C. Overcast with a long wet day forecast. We could get 12mm or half an inch of rain today.

 8.15 Up at 7am after a quiet night. If I am to have a walk then it ought to be now. The rain is expected to start around 10am.

 9.30 Still overcast but no rain yet. It was nearly 8.45 by the time I left. My usual walk to the lanes. A cold S-SE wind made my eyes water, my nose run and my fingers cold. 

 Oh, the wonderful irony! The refuse/recycling staff left me a note. To say that the potholes in the shared drive risk damage to their vehicle. This, after decades of dragging my bin to the junction with the main run. None of the drive legally belongs to me. I have no boundaries to it. Except the entrance to my own garden.  The problem was that none of the neighbours cared about maintenance. None would contribute to its upkeep over the years. Despite enjoying its freedom to come and go. I even had to dig my way out through the snow every winter!

  I have been fetching gravel and filling the potholes. Despite my having no legal requirement to do so. I even paid for lorry loads of gravel to be delivered and strewn along the drive. So I [alone] could even it out with a rake. 

 My heart problems put and end to my hard labour over maintaining the drive. I also sold my old car and large trailer. So cannot fetch useful quantities of gravel any more. The Morris Minor cannot tow heavy weights and the small trailer is matched to that situation. Only a thin layer of gravel in the bottom would seriously overload it.

 My neighbours, who own the entire drive legally, also had a printed note. Which like mine, was presumably trapped in the bin lid. Theirs had blown away. So I rescued it and popped it into their postbox.

 The drive exits on a blind and dangerous corner with speeding traffic. Including buses and seven axle international transport, container lorries. So there is literally nowhere for the large bin lorry to park on the road. Nor anywhere to place the bins near the road for the few houses in our tiny hamlet. Ideally the ruin left by a developer years ago could be demolished. It lies just prior to the sharp and blind bend. Leaving a modest area for the lorry to pull in, park and room for the bins to be arranged for emptying. The lorry could leave on his own side of the road with a clear view behind.

 Though this idea would add yet another 100 meters to my existing 100m drag. Of the heavy, wheely bins along to the collection timetable. Much of the main drive is now heavily potholed. Except for the 100m stretch to my home. Which was given a lorry load of gravel a couple of years ago. At my own expense. Which I personally spread out. The surface is standing up to the normally modest traffic levels reasonably well. Though the recent movements of the tradesmen's vans has ruined my self-made parking space.  

 I will have a chat with my neighbour. To suggest how this might be way to remove the hideous eyesore on the road. Which blights the view from all the houses in the area. Not to mention seriously depleting their value.

 I had a shower using my new shower rail and shower head as intended. Rather than hand held. It was not easy. There is no thermostatic control of water temperature. Which fluctuated more than was desirable. Despite there being no other water being used at the time. As I was sitting within the spray pattern. I struggled to reach the taps to adjust the temperature. 

 The upside was that remaining seated, within the generous width of the sits bath, kept the spray off the floor. The towel, which is always placed beside the bath. To avoid stepping out onto a cold and slippery, tiled floor, was dry. Perhaps I should consider a thermostatically controlled, mixer tap?

 Dinner was a salmon pasty, peas, tinned tomatoes and pasta. I washed up while it was cooking.

 ~o~