Normal for Norfolk..........: FUTILITY .

The Vicar of Dibley had a great illustration of how villages and villagers remember events that effected them or that were out of the norm. They reminisced about the Great storm of '87 then went on to recall the slightly lesser Great wind which was nearly as bad as the Great Storm but it just didn't have the rain. This led them to talk of the Great Snow of '54 and their rather flaky memories tried further to decide who died in what ferocious climate calamity, was it the Great Frost or indeed the Great Freeze of '48. Well I think that we had, last week, The Great Typhoon of 2011 albeit just about half an hours worth. As I sat in the office looking across a sunlit garden I noticed an incongruous dark sky beyond, a very, very ominous cloud was brewing up and seemed to be heading our way.

A lone pigeon was sitting abreast a chimney pot. He was looking totally the wrong way. I felt like shouting out to the bird "It's behind you!" But I didn't, choosing my normal course of action instead which is to drop everything and go and get my camera.

This cloud was one of the darkest that I had seen in several years and yet the sun was still slipping underneath it. Then the slight breeze started to muster up it's strength and every tree in the garden started to sway bending over further and further each time. Surly this was our moment, we were about to enter our very own Valhalla. The cloud appeared to fly over us as if it were a space ship or an enormous Zepplin, I know, they're already huge, But that just goes to demonstrate the magnitude of this monster.

Eventually "The Great Rain" arrived and boy did it bucket down. 12 buckets to be precise as that was how many leaks we had to stick a bucket or bowl under to catch the falling rain.

The street out side became a river and two of the windows in the guest room started to ooze water as if they were crying. Claire and Alison Had strategically placed several buckets along the wall below where the conservatory butted up to The main building, if it were to continue then it would have been a lost cause. However it made a withdrawal after about 25 minutes have successfully turned the junction out side to a river fit for a canoeist to ride the current. In short it was The Great Wet!

Yes the garden was crying out for this and yes it was far too late for the farmers, but boy what a show.

Then it moved on, moved towards another poor unfortunate leaving nothing but leaves and rose petals straggled across a rather unkempt lawn.

The remaining clouds then gathered together to facilitate, with the suns co-operation an enormous double rainbow
or, as we call it..... The Great Rainbow!

Then we were left with your bulk standard 'normal' storm clouds and the moment had passed, with little Dorothy well on her way to the Land of Oz!

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With just a few days to go to our first guests arriving I noticed that there was a loo problem. Having gathered my thoughts and dug out my trusty plunger I was ready to carry-out an instant unblock. This should just take 30 seconds or so.

Three hours later having been down a man-hole cover up to my waist in ...........
Having used Stephens Germ warfare suit. Why has my son got a germ warfare suit you may ask? You may ask, until the cows come home because I have no idea why Stephen has such an item, although I do recall him mumbling something about it being cheap. This, in all fairness, is a good enough reason for me.
I looked like a grey haired fat over the hill Action Man, a look I have to admit, that I thought was quite fetching. So you can only imagine my surprise when the girls didn't want to hug me afterwards. Drain clearing is a very lonely job, something not helped by the fact that it was one of the few hot days that this summer produced. Phheeewwwyyyyyyyyy...

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My last little ditty is to remind you that we have bats, low flying ones at that and a few nights ago I resolved to photograph them.

This, my followers, is not as easy as you might think. Oh, you don't think it is very easy, well you'd be right. Alison and Claire thought it hilarious as I followed a bat, barely keeping up as it flew straight towards my head then ducked down and away into the darkness. FLASH! as my cameras flash-light lit nothing but a random patch of sky for the bat was 20 yards away giving me the bums rush.
There's another, up goes the camera and Whooooosh and I nearly fall to the ground in dizziness trying to catch up with it. So here for your enjoyment are the best of my Bat photos.....