Nor any drop to drink

We came home last night to discover, inexplicably, the plant pot from my desk had been moved to the middle of the office floor.

I puzzled over this for a few minutes, and then gave it up as a Mystery, and thought no more of it.

It was solved this afternoon when Lucy ambled down the stairs for her breakfast and asked if I had found the plant.

She had put it there, she explained, helpfully, to catch the water running through the ceiling from where her shower seemed to have sprung a leak. It was leaking a lot, she added, there was a lot of water dripping from the light fittings.

How does one placate Water Gods, does anybody know? They are unlikely to be mollified by our usual method of communication with the Divine, which tends to involve lighting a candle and hoping to be sent a tenner.

We could not do much about it at the time. It is going to have to be next week’s job, because today we were in the middle of trying to clear up the post-leaky-washing machine mess.

Mark took the carpet up, underneath which we discovered a vile bubbling horror of decayed soapsud black slime. He tipped bleach all over it, and scrubbed it, which resulted in the top layer of laminate melting off the floorboards, although since it took the black slime with it we though this was probably all right.

He washed the carpet, and we cranked up the dehumidifier and wiped and dried the floor, then Mark put the carpet in the garden to try and get it to dry.

It did not do this at all, because shortly afterwards it rained.

It rained so hard that we could hardly hear ourselves talk. It bounced off the path and crackled on the leaves.

We left the carpet where it was, given a lack of other choices of Things To Do With A Black Mouldy Sodden Carpet.

It is still dripping now. Perhaps we will get another heatwave tomorrow, we will have problems if not.

I cleaned the bathroom, which was not much better. Black mould had crept up the shower curtain and around the plughole, it is perfect weather to be a fungus.

We had cups of tea and contemplated our habitat rather gloomily. It is beyond awful in the living room at the moment. Everything out of the kitchen is in there, except the things that were so big they had to be left in the kitchen, like the dresser.

Mark mixed two tins of reasonably cream coloured paint together and painted the purple wall, which helped, and I cleaned black mould and cobwebs from some of the nastier corners.

After that we had to go to work, because Lucy has got another driving lesson tomorrow, and then again on Wednesday. It is her test on Thursday, you can’t imagine how much I am hoping for a good result. It will be lovely to have money for things that are not driving lessons again.

Mark has got to go to the rural broadband sort of work tomorrow, so I will be clearing up on my own.

I have become resigned to watery difficulties now, and believe that I have achieved a Zen calmness and balance about the whole thing. I will accept my lot until the Water Deities get bored and go somewhere else.

All the same, I hope that the sun shines.