On top of all my sorrows with the moles, peacocks, rats, cows, pigs, and a lot more, the Housemartins had decided while I was away, that my thatching is just the thing to built their nests from! I got home to find that the rain had poured in at a few different places, where there never was a leak. It took me the best of two days to get all the mouldy things cleaned, and had to throw away some of the bedding, as it was unusable.
 I couldn't understand why it suddenly leaked at this new spots, but the next day I went to open the gate in order to go shopping, when my eyes caught some movement on the roof. It was two Housemartins plucking away lustily at the thatching, and I almost hyperventilated when I saw the huge gaping spots where they had already removed the thatch! I went to the co-op for help, but they had no solution, so I bought a can of foam spray that is sprayed in gaps when windows or such things don't fit properly.
So weaponed with this, I put up the ladder, which was a bitty rickety, the ground not very even, and sprayed the foam into the holes on the side of the house where the roof was low enough to reach. The front was a different story, as it was very high, and I just do not have the guts of five years back when I put the ladder on a table to reach the highest spots. I tried a few times, but every time the ladder wiggled a bit, my heart almost stopped, so after a while I aborted that effort, and decided to spray the foam from the ground, as I found that this can sprayed to the top of the roof on the side I did first. It did not work, so I tried to stand on the ladder just under the roof, and spray blindly, hoping to find the target! Bally great mess! Some of the foam got caught by the overhanging thatch, and low and behold, a huge piece dropped on my just washed head!
Now that was a disaster, as this stuff did not dissolve in water, so I ran for the turps, which did not do the trick either. I decided to wait until the stuff was dry, and then try to get it off, which was a big mistake, as it grew to an enormous size when it started to expand, and I had to cut off all the hair that the stuff stuck to. Must say, there is quite a resemblance between my tattered hairstyle, and my tattered roof!
Joy was glad when I got back, she is my new neighbour, as she had to lock herself in as soon as dusk fell, being scared of the thugs always prowling for somewhere to do their mischief.. Over the week-end, on our country's freedom day, an eighty seven year old nun was raped and murdered, her hands binded with her rosary. Darn it, it is twenty years since the new government took over, and when something like this happens, the nun's fate is nothing to the world, as the poor man who did it was so disadvantsged, and I bet my sox on the fact that he will be out in a few months!
The top picture shows my new beigbour, then just how pretty my garden is, and on the bottom one some of the damage the birds did can be seen.