Tag: Roof

Roofing

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I just had someone who is working next door offer to clear the gutter. He went up to have a look and bought down two tiles which he said were in the gutter I had a look and they are from about a third of the way up. He said he would have to batten and refelt it and do four rows of tiles. I asked for a quote and he said £6000. I don’t have that kind of money and told him. According to his figures the whole roof would cost tens of thousands!
Then, a roofer who came round a few days ago came back and said he would clear the gutters, replace the few loose tiles, remove the ivy and point the ridge tiles for £800..im letting them do it… Am I making a mistake?

He says it will take a couple of hours. I think I’m being conned, maybe the other offer came round to scare me into having the work done today. But they are getting rid of a lot of ivy that’s got up to the roof…

Oh hell….

Guttering

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My guttering around the house has been dripping on me. When I finally looked up I could see grass protruding from the gutter above the front door. Every time I went out in the rain I got wet.

Luckily the neighbours recommend a workman who would clean it out. He came today to do the work, it  literally took 10 minutes, including putting the ladder up to the roof, but it’s worth having it done. He bought down a bucket full of moss, leaves and grass. Hopefully it is now sorted out. He asked me how long it’s been since I’ve had the guttering cleared and I had to admit it must be over twenty years. That means the cost was a few pence for every year I have lived here!

Mossy roof

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View over rickety old workshops in Etruria last week. The roof is heavily covered in moss. It’s also covered in leaf litter from silver birch trees growing on the Etruria Flint mill land. It must have blown across in the heavy winds we had over the last couple of months. Today I’m having a rest after loudly wassailing last night.

Ivy

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Ivy is growing right over our roof and into the yard. I’m worried that the roof of the extention will be damaged. The problem is neither of us are up to the heavy work required to sort it out. So the yard is starting to look like a picturesque ruin. I took a photo because the sun was setting and the sky was a nice, contrastong pink, but I think my camera over exposes photos, so you can only see a hint of the salmon pink it was glowing.

Rooves

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Yesterday I drew an horizon. But this was a photo I took that I almost worked from. I liked the serried rows of house rooves and chimneys , but they are capped with tower blocks and modern concrete buildings up in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent. I decided that it wasn’t what I wanted to draw. Slate rooves, old and grey, covered in lichens, no longer wrapped in the smoke of potteries and bottle ovens. Cleaner air, further views.

Cat on a roof

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One of our indoor cats snuck out the back door today. We didn’t realise as my hubby left the back door open just while he popped out to get the milk in. I knew she was out when I went to give her some cat treats and she didn’t come running immediately.

My hubby is loud, and she runs and hides from him, so when he went out shouting her name I knew that wouldn’t work. I put my coat on and shook the bag of treats near the back door, then tried looking between the back fence and the shed. No sign. Still shouting her name I called and called, no answer…

I came in to calm down, I did the washing up to take my mind off things. I decided to give her a few minutes peace to let her settle wherever whe was. Then I went out and called her again….

Mew! Mew! She was miaowing loudly, but where? Sounded like the neighbours garden. You have to go out our front door and down the alley… Mew! I could hear her, but not see her. She mewed constantly as I called her, I looked behind old bits of wood, and an old door propped against the fence. Mew! I climbed over a pile of old branches into the next garden. Mew! Not in their shed.

Mew! The cat noise was coming and going, as if she was moving around. But where? Not behind anything? Maybe up? There she was, she must have climbed up a bush to get onto a kitchen extension roof!

She doesn’t climb, except up stairs, but she got up there. Mew!!! Come down little cat? After a lot of cajoling she came down just after the neighbour offered the loan of a ladder! She scrambled and slid down the branches… And shot off into our garden! I ran round and back through the front door, through the house and let her in the back door. She ran upstairs. Then she came down again and had some food, as if nothing had happened.

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Pigeon take off…..

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As I pressed the shutter on my phone this pigeon was sitting sweetly on the TV Ariel, but it took a short while for the shutter to click, so it was in mid flight by the time I had snapped it. At least I caught the downward beat of its wings. Tail splayed to give it lift. Where it fluttered from its erch I don’t know. I was just checking my phone screen to see what I’d managed to capture. Photo taken at Etruria, Stoke-on-Trent, today. Mostly blue skies and not too cold.