And as the wind and rain lashes against the back window here in south London on a May Bank Holiday Monday evening here’s some pics from our pond project that got away so to speak.

Firstly (above) the ton of sludge at the bottom of the pond that has now been distributed around the back garden and being washed into the soil as we write. When we looked into our empty garden pond we were reminded of one of our favourite places in London The Strand Lane “Roman” Bath (below) which is basically an old water tank too. More details about that wonderful place of “Antiquity” here.

When all gets back to some sort of normality it’s a place worth visiting perhaps just once. You can’t see anything at all through the dirty viewing window and if you are lucky to go inside, the smell of damp and lack of anything to actually capture your imagination will drive you out after five minutes. As a certain John Lydon (possibly) sang about the place once “The side of London that the tourists never see”.

And (below) the great piece of carpet underlay that was sitting on top of the skip when we walked back from the local shop with a cheap bucket and two pairs of long armed washing up gloves. It’s all about “keeping ’em peeled” as Shaw Taylor used to say combined with the old “make do with what you got” Punk maxim!