We’ve had more rain this winter than I can remember for many years. As I said the other day, I’ve got downpipe problems – that is, not the actual downpipes but a hopper that takes the rain from a roof and directs it into a downpipes. It abruptly turned into a colander. This is right by my big porch and the rain is wetting the wall and coming into the porch – not dripping, but wetting the wood and round the ceiling and also the wall behind the toilet in the cloakroom. When the guttering was replaced before we moved here, for reasons best known to himself, Russell replaced everything but this one cast iron hopper. He always liked to leave a job not quite done. Used to drive me nuts. He would deliberately leave everything with a small part imperfect and I like things to be completed. However, it lasted for decades without problems, admittedly. Now, it’s a disaster. I can’t shut the side door completely as it’s swelled and have to lock the inner door and not the outer one. It’s at times like this that I wish I’d dealt with all the house mending stuff, because Russell insisted on it and I don’t have the contacts that he did. He was very protective of his house – it was very much his. He was born here and he died here and I understood his protectiveness. Until the last few years, when things were neglected and I was very worried about the future, I loved living here and I do again now, but it was my home, not my house. I’ve sometimes felt that I should have argued more, but neither of us would have liked that.