59mm fell within one and a half hours!!!!
It poured like there was no tomorrow, and our cellar/laundry room/mud room started leaking in all sorts of new places. This is a rather unfinished room of bare stone walls with original mud mortar and dead plants sticking out of it from the days when it was a wreck with no roof. Water gushed in under the slates somewhere and ran down the walls and we ended up having to suck it up with the wet and dry vac as we couldn't cope with the deluge with towels!
My gravel drive on a steep slope has partly washed down the hill, leaving exposed bedrock. I don't think we'll be able to open the gates until we shovel it back up!
However, the great news is that the torrential rain started up the stream which fills the lake in the winter months, and in no time at all it filled right back up again - the lake is 2,500m2 (more than half an acre) and the level had gone down already by about 50cm which is worse than last year.
At one point the 1st overflow disappeared completely and water was gushing through the backup overflow - the noise was tremendous and the lake level was about 6" above its normal level and threatening to overflow completely - which could have been a bit disastrous as it would overflow into the road.
Thankfully on the veggie front the only damage was a tomato that fell over and lost a few green toms. The rest of the plants/trees are breathing a sigh of relief - water!!
Everything smells wonderful and damp and earthy now and the moorhens and their babies are very happy to have a full pond again.
So are we!!! And guess what - I had a night off from the watering!!!
