Not out of the woods yet

We have had a week of fine weather, and have had lunch out on the terrace most days, yesterday with the pleasure of Celia and Andy’s company.  They have both recovered well from Covid, as have several members of Martyn’s family.  A central heating fixer we tried to get in during the December/January fun and games with the boiler had to cancel because he had caught it.  The plasterer we want to use is testing positive, so it’ll be a while before he can come and have a look.  One of my German conversation group friends has caught it, so was coughing through the zoom meeting on Tuesday.  And yet, when we visit the shops, we are among the few (mostly older) people wearing masks.  A former colleague of Martyn’s is recovering from his third attack of Covid, the latest one having required a visit to A&E.  Fully vaccinated and all.  We’re not in a hurry to lower our defences.

Our insurer’s emergency call-out man did not, as he had assured us, find nor isolate the leak.  After various increasingly frustrating conversations next day with said insurers and their co-conspirators (while the regular drip continued) we decided to take the bull by the horns and bear the costs ourselves.  A plumber we’ve used a lot in the past came on Wednesday, diagnosed the problem and fixed it on Thursday.  The insurers had offered to send a ‘test and trace’ person next Monday and a plumber goodness knows when.  Oh, and wanted the £350 excess up front.  However tempted, I didn’t actually utter a soldier’s farewell, but thanked them for their advice and told them we would not be proceeding with a claim.  The bill is going to be a stinker, but it’s worth it to have a functioning home in a reasonable time.  I hate to think how much more damage there would have been had we accepted the insurers’ timescale.  Recommendations for good home insurers, please.  Not including LV, thank you kindly.  

We gather that the warm weather is coming to an end.  But it has been a delight to get out in the fresh air, and the garden is starting to reward our modest efforts.  We have enough variety of narcissi to keep the colour going, the magnolias are flowering well and it won’t be long before the viburnum joins in.  The spiraea is coming into its all too brief flowering season, and of course the polyanthus just go on and on.