heavy rain

We're having a day at home today. I looked at the weather forecast last night and it said heavy rain so I resigned myself to being at home. The children like being at home anyway. It's me that gets a bit restless. Well, especially when I know that something needs to be done, like shopping, and I don't really feel like it, and the kids just shout "noooo" every time I suggest it. That's what happened yesterday, and it was about 4 o'clock by the time we got out and did it. I just can't get on with anything at home if I know I'm going to have to go out, so I just mooched and did bits of washing up, etc, getting myself into a right old state. I put washing out and then it got totally soaked. I was getting a bit overwhelmed by what seems like all of Meg's clothes that she has decided to wash before she moves it to her flat. I can't cope with that volume of washing all at once!
But then finally I was ok, and we found a tub of lego at the tip in the plastics recycling- about 20 quid's worth, I recon. Well that makes up for last time I attempted to go there on the way to the supermarket with a boot full of rubbish and recycling- it was unexpectedly shut- so where was I supposed to put the shopping? I had to be rescued.

Anyway, we have had some heavy rain, which has stopped for a no-doubt brief inturlude. And the back patio has filled up like a lake again. I have been trying to sort out the drain in the last week. I had to get rid of the watercress bed, and managed to redirect the rivulet that comes out of the wall and used to run right across the back door, so that it goes back, away from the door and into the drain. There are other bits, where the water seeps down from the wall, which could possibly be sorted by a gravel soakaway. The 'river' is a lot drier than this now, anyway.

So, anyway, every time I try to sort the drain I get distracted by all the wildlife I find, like this lovely toad, which I looked at for ages, saying ar, isn't it lovely, then thought it was plastic cos it hadn't moved and I felt really stupid, and had to poke it to see if it was real.
These are some of the little water creatures I found in the 'river' that used to run onto the patio before I diverted it back to the drain.
And these shrimpy looking things? We got all the wildlife books out but couldn't find out what these were- fairy shrimps?
Not forgetting the wormery I found underneath the wooden decking tiles I had put down as a temporary measure.
Anyway, the potatoes have all got soggy and blighted, and I haven't had the heart (or the weather) to dig them up yet. I have this theory about Hebden Bridge going back to it's natural state as a swamp as all the land drains have got broken and lost and no-one can find or fix them. It all seems to be very precarious, and held up with very high dry stone walls (the one bordering my garden is the responsibilty of the highways, thankfully; it must be 20' high). The valley has only been inhabited for a relatively short time, since industriallisation, which came and went, and only came back as houses were so cheap and no-one wanted them so it got inhabited by squatting hippies. So why anyone wants to live here now? Well, it's ok, but but not like the big des-res area that the house-prices would suggest. And i feel like I live in a hole. Maybe I should take over the boy's bedroom asap, so I don't wake up looking up at the Big Wall. It actaully has quite a 'nice view' at the front, if you count a view of Hebden Bridge as a nice view ;-)