AII we need now is the Biblical plague of locusts. Neighbours have had fires, we're surrounded by pestilence (bovine TB), and now we've had floods! Our patch of North Cornwall made news for all the wrong reasons when a very small cloud built to becomean enormously big one and then sat quite still for about three hours. It dropped up to 8 inches of rain, with devastating consequences for the bottom of the valleys. Usually the rainwater goes past us, but this time it didn't. It's bad enough if it's your own cow's waste that floods in, but when it's your neighbour's...! Water came in a torrent off our top fields, through the farm buildings and out the other side with little damage except to the road which was stripped of tarmac. Ken moved a few calveswhich were paddling, but apart from that there wasn't a lot of damage to the farm. But the bank which is above the farmhouse and my holiday cottage gave way, and water from that field (not ours) came in a torrent between the two properties. The drains coul'dn't cope and a lot diverted into the farm office and on into the dining room. And while I was bailing that out and moving everything I could carry to safer perches, it snuck up behind me and came in the lounge as well! Result was soggy, trashed carpets - and now no carpets but men with drying machines and insurance people and carpet fitters and plasterers and builders and painters.
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