Slow painting

Sunday 4 January 2009

Plumbing problems


Today's visit to the plot, the first of the New Year, was really just to check things over and to take along the kitchen waste for the compost bin. The site was deserted, and the sound of a running tap carried so clearly and persistently that I had to investigate. The water to the site is turned off in the winter months (danger of burst pipes/plenty of wet falling from the sky anyway), but this standpipe tap was gushing away and making a swamp of the nearby plot. I couldn't budge it to turn it off, so the man with the strimmer graciously left his kitchen re-tiling work at home and came along with a spanner (tho I'm told that the correct technical term is a 'mole wrench'). He managed to reduce the flow to a faint trickle, which will have to do until the Allotments Division of the city council opens tomorrow and can send someone round.

Otherwise the ground was too frosty to dig, but I could see what the books mean when they talk about the earth being made 'friable' by frost. We stood and looked at the encroaching weeds and made lots of resolutions about spring digging.

8 comments:

Unknown said...

Ah man! Hate those type of surprises! Glad the little man abandoned his project to give you a hand.

Linda said...

That is great that it is not gushing anymore.

Corner Gardener Sue said...

I'm glad you went around there and found the water on. What a waste. The school I work at had a faucet in a sink that wouldn't turn off. It was reported several times, and not taken care of for a number of months. One day, I went in and got 4 cups in a minute. I was relieved when they finally fixed it. I hope yours is fixed by now.

Sue

Commonweeder said...

Its good that you found the water on. that wouldn't happen around here. Everything is frozen solid.

Bergson said...

quick a bottle !!!

Pulsatilla said...

Good thing you came along and saw it!
I will be stopping by again, I'm sure spring will come to you before it reaches me up here in Norway.

Small City Scenes said...

Did you ever find out what caused the faucet to open in the first place? It sure can make a mess in a garden plot. thanks for visiting my blog. MB

Linda said...

The tap was still running when I went to the plot yesterday. I'll be getting on to the Council today to follow up.