I've just taken a good look at our apple tree and the crop is looking rather thin this year. Last year we had a bumper crop of apples; this year we'll be lucky to harvest a dozen. Blame it on the bizarre weather we've been having. The few summer days we've had have been hot enough to melt the trees. Otherwise, it's been non-stop monsoon-like rain.
There have been a lot of floods reported across Britain. Have you ever been in a home damaged by flood water? I have, and it is not a pleasant experience. Look around your room now, as you're reading this, and see just how much is under knee-height. Carpets or other flooring, chairs and soft furnishings, electrical goods and electrical wall sockets, food, kitchen equipment, gas heaters, wallpaper, the plaster on walls, etc. All this has to be cleared away, ruined. And pets can easily die in floods, too. Add to this backed-up sewers, and remember that while you're trying to clean up the mess you're paddling in a soup of virulent bacteria. The smell is...memorable.
This happened to an old friend of mine, who was living on the ground floor of a purpose-built block of flats so her bed, bedding, clothes and shoes were all ruined too. She literally had what she was wearing - her nightie, dressing gown and slippers. And even these were saturated. The flood water was waist-deep, so no-one was allowed to go back into the building to try and rescue any of their stuff.
It was around a year before the insurance was fully sorted out. Meanwhile, she spent most of that time living in temporary accommodation which offered little in the way of privacy. Still, she got through it and was eventually rehoused in a much nicer, more spacious flat than her old one.
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