The hosepipe ban

Perhaps we should go down to the Central Line with our buckets! One of the managers was speaking on the news at lunch time and said in a round about way that his team had been checking the pipes underground and this particular one wasn't right. It gave up the ghost and the water just flooded out. This begs the question why wasn't it tested on a regular basis? If it has been tested on a regular basis, how come it wasn't spotted as I would have thought it takes quite a while for a pipe to get to that stage! How many other pipes are in a similar condition, I wonder?
Transport in London is going through a very difficult time at present - look at the fiasco at the weekend, with a Sunday service running and all those people needing to get home - and the dreaded Olympics are looming large.........

regarding the fish/heron/pond issue - I looked out of my kitchen window. Neighbour's garage roof is maybe 12 metres away. Enormous heron. Crow trying to send it off. I don't think i have seen a heron so close before - the crow was about the size of its head! Suspect fish numbers down... It would have been better if DH had never cleared the green soup algae away with some clever product.
Top engineers have been talking about water, see link. Not sure how you could have a separate metering for using outdoor hoses, but engineers are clever. But wouldn't people just attach hoses to their kitchen tap, like we did in times of yore?

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-18342309

My cut flower seedlings are drowning in this rain sodden drought!

It is here now.
But I got some stuff into the trench for the runners, and today I've taken a piece of the leaky hose and drilled small holes through it so it will leak more - this is to go in the trench and the beans will go in the top layer, get watered from underneath.
Meamwhile it rains and I repot tomatoes.

Thought I might do some weeding (I know the road to hell is paved etc etc etc) but there's the rain on again or is it ?

Left the car out in the downpour - lovely and clean, no scrubbing, and for free.
Sunshine coming out now, hurrah.

perfect day to dig up something that needs to be removed. Once our clay dries out there is not hope.

A good soaking is what our garden got/is getting. If this drought goes on we'll all have webbed feet.

Yes it may have rained on a few parades but it has certainly given the gardens a proper watering.

No watering, whee!

The rain has nicely watered my trench for runners - must get them in quickly...

Don't some "proper" car washes filter their water and recycle it?
But high pressure hose ones where the water goes onto the ground presumably not in this category. Many businesses use large amounts of water and they should be on a commercial meter.
They do say dorset that it is better to do focussed watering - pouring/hosing the water at the roots and giving them a soaking (not too often) rather than just a general spray around - is more helpful to plants and encourages them to put their roots down deeper. Spraying across the surface of soil will only damp the top layer and evaporate quickly.
I guess one thing we can think about at this time of year is to limit the number of pots we have to worry about.

Talking about car washing, valet services with high pressure hoses seem to be popping up all over the place around our way. I can think of 4 places I've visited in the last few days each had a car wash which was being well used. And we're in a hosepipe ban area where we're invited to snitch on our neighbours! The reason given is that it would affect someone's livelihood to stop this service, so surprise surprise it seems that new such businesses are starting up. You can't knock enterprise! - or can you?

A bit like Queen Elizabeth 1st? Mine only gets washed when I can persuade a grandson to do it....

Thought I might remind people of the bit about using up the cold water that comes first from the hot tap, too.

Both new 1000 litre containers are installed, and the link + pump between all 3 is now working - so we are all set here.

Nobody has picked up on the car washing thing - do cars really have to be washed in a drought? I only wash mine about twice a year, whether is needs it or not. In fact I can't remember when I last washed it. Who cares?

dorsetpennt mentioned 1976 so, just as an aside, I thought I'd tell you what I was doing for most of that year. Working for a water authority, measuring water levels in various places for the end of a 5 year study. I began work on April 1st!

And here's another:
news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/1/newsid_2492000/2492981.stm

Thank you Greatnan - I think it is most unhelpful of the media (and government) to trail these red herrings in the interest of a story. Big distraction from the possibility that some southern areas could be on much more stringent drought restrictions if we have low rainfall in the SE this summer.
Here is a link about the state of affairs that prevailed in N Ireland in Dec. 2010.
It goes against the grain - but this illustrates why water privatisation in mainland UK was a good decision! And how much better the network is managed here.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-12082535

I am glad you are so well informed, Jess - I found your explanation most interesting.

This really puts our "drought" into perspective marti as everything very green and lush here - and the temperature is very temperate and rarely uncomfortably hot.

In Australia, Adelaide, the "driest state in the driest continent" we have had to get used to water restrictions,what we do use is expensive too. With improved conditions we could use sprinklers for the first time in many years, I used to be sad my grandkids didn't get to experience a cooling run through the sprinkler on the lawn on hot evenings. We save where we can, shower with a bucket, offload washing machine water, have 3 min max showers, not wash cars, keep a bucket in the kitchen for rinse water from vegies, use water vegies have boiled in, anything to keep things going. Alas, much dies and people lose heart at starting again, missing out on hobby and exercise of the garden.

It is raining very gently here - but I wish I had some of the rain from Oxford yesterday!

We have a ban but the heavens open last night which was good for our water butts and few flowers. Then I heard on the news about a road closure due to a water main burst grrrrrr

So far no hosepipe ban here but I am very aware that we could still be threatened despite the recent rainfall. I water my pots only as they have no other way of getting water. Also a quick hose over my small garden but the lawn I'm afraid is on it's own. My neighbour used to put her water sprinkler on for hours - she'd forget about it and even go shopping with it watering for hours at a time. In the end I'm afraid I took matters into my own hands and turned it off. She didn't mind and this year has taken it to heart that it would be very inconsiderate to use a sprinkler at all. I remember the 1976 drought well. Our washing machine used to empty into the sink so we collected the rinse water for the garden. I'd lived in the Far East at a child where we were rationed in the summer to water from 7am to 9am and from 6pm to 8pm. We had 2 bathrooms and we'd fill those for use whilst the water was off.

Funny OH has just ordered some of that stuff shysal, I totally poopoo'd it as a load of junk but maybe I'll be proved wrong and he won't of wasted his money..
If its that simple he can prove it by cleaning my car as well as his own...lol

For cleaning the car, drought or not, I use "Showroom Shine" by Greased Lightening. It needs no water at all however dusty or dirty the vehicle. It takes me about 10-15 minutes to clean the car with 2 microfibre cloths and absolutely no elbow grease. If you buy from the following website make sure you choose the bogof option. It really is as good as the video shows.
www.idealworld.tv/BOGOF_Greased_Lightning_Showroom_Shine_1_Litre_171785.aspx?fh_location=//idealworld/en_GB/$s=showroon%20shine