The Empty Golf Course

We are lucky enough to have a lovely rental property that sits behind the first hole of a golf course.  It is quite nice not to have other homes behind us and we have a great view up the fairway for this hole.  The only time it is irritating is some mornings when the groundskeepers come riding down to their shack which is also behind the first hole and they are quite noisy as they get out their machines.   But for the most part it is peaceful and quiet and great.  We see deer cross the fairway sometimes and there's always some magpies and crows flying around down there.

 
Living here we have come to realize what a strange breed is the golfer and especially the British golfer.  It is not a sport that anyone in my family has ever taken up as a hobby or sport or vocation or love.  But the golfers that play the course behind us must be the most avid and determined and also frustrated golfers in the world.  They are out there every single day.  No matter the weather, no matter the date, no matter the time, we see golfers on the course.   The only times we have not seen golfers pursuing their passion have been the three times when the course has been covered in snow.  And quite frankly, we were a bit surprised that there weren't golfers in the snow.  I figured there would be colored golf balls by now so they could be tracked.  But snow means no golfers.


Until this week!  Surrey has taken some heavy rainfall this week and parts of Surrey have gone swimming involuntarily.  Our own garden is a mixture of swamp and muck but at least not underwater like some of my friends.  The first day after the big storm that dumped water on Surrey this week, I was home all day and not once did I see a golfer out on the course.  I didn't think much about it but then we kept having rain and more rain and more rain and now for three days there have been no golfers.  I imagine that it is so wet and muddy that the course has been closed because the golf cleats could probably tear up the grounds pretty badly.  There is a sand trap near our first hole and right now, it is a water feature.  

 So the golf course is empty and I rather miss the golfers.  They come in all sizes and shapes and all manner of odd golf clothes and bring everything from golf carts to remote controlled golf bags that roll across the course by themselves.  And as we have seen golfers in heavy rains and heavy winds, still out there whacking the ball, I believe that the course has been closed by the owners and that there would be golfers there in spite of all the wet and soggy conditions, were they allowed.    Hopefully we'll see some in the next few days.

Mucking About Revisited

Revisiting the Mucking About

            We had discovered an unknown water feature in our garden, a waterfall over 3 stone basins into a pit.  Spent the whole day mucking it out and leaving a pile of yucky dirt/mud/leaves/crap for our clean up man to get rid of this next weekend.  He’s gonna just love that.  Turns out our landlord did know about it and had filled it in when his children were toddlers.  Wise.  But he’s happy to let us muck about in it and see if we can get it working and all now.

            So we got all the basins cleared and the pit pretty much empty.  The pump wasn’t working so that will need some attention plus we will have to blow out the line and hopefully it isn’t broken anywhere.  Of course today, it rained.  It rained a lot.  Now all the basins are full but not quite to the point of spilling over into the next basis.  The pit at the bottom is full and all mucky again.  Oh dear.  Seems like we might have to start all over with the mucky out bit next weekend.  I will have a water feature though, eventually.

Mucking out the Waterfall

Mucking out the Water Feature

June 10, 2012

            Sunday – we were supposed to have a driving lesson today but our instructor texted in sick – after we were already at our pick up location and ready to go.  OH Well, gave us the Sunday free for other things.  We decided that we needed to practice our barbeque skills on some good British Beef since it isn’t always cut like we know it in the States.  A quick stop at Waitrose to get the main dish and then home for some good hard gardening. 

            We have a gardener.  He comes every other week and does as much as he can in the allotted time but it isn’t always enough.  Imagine our surprise when last week he pulled out a big weed and it appears that there is a water feature in our garden!  Who knew!?  So we decided to clear it out and see if we can use it.  I have always wanted a water feature and sometimes have tried for some piddley little ones that don’t amount to much and aren’t very satisfying but this one looks to be a nice big waterfall. 

            Hubby started shoveling out the muck and wet leaves and such and realized almost immediately that it was going to take mucking out by hand because the bottom pit is covered with a membrane and we have no idea what kind of shape it is in and certainly didn’t want to put a hole in it.  He keeps shoveling out with his hands and shoveling and shoveling until he finally is close to reaching bottom.  The pit is about 2 ½ to 3’ deep.  He did find the pump which was buried in all the dirt and leaves and also a switch on the side of the falls to turn on the pump.

            I went to the top and started working from that end.  He’d already cleared some of the ivy and we knew that the water was supposed to run from cement basins to the bottom pit and then be pumped back up to the top.  I couldn’t find where the plastic hose was coming back into the top at first but after I hacked out some more ivy and then cleaned out the first basin, I found it.  It is full of dirt and we will probably have to pressure hose water into the whole thing from the bottom to blow it out but unfortunately, our hose isn’t long enough and we might be on a hose pipe ban anyway.  Not sure about that.  We’ll figure out some way to do it without messing up any bans.

            We keep hand shoveling and trowel shoveling and got the fish net for some more shoveling until we had everything cleared.  It is a delightful run from the top into 3 basins and then into the bottom pit.  With some of the ivy cleared away, we found some other blooming flowers.  Have no idea what they are either but they are pretty.

            Now for the big moment; my husband went and flipped the switch to give power to the pump, we thought.  Of course nothing happened.  Oh well.  Didn’t really think it would.  But the important part is that we have a water fall!  How exciting it that?  Might take us a few weeks to get it up and running but we are trying.  Hopefully the hose that runs from the bottom to the top is not broken anywhere otherwise it might take a lot longer to fix.  Can’t wait to see it in action.