Scott Andrew Bailey – Author

Last night we had rain in biblical quantities. Hard, heavy rain that made a noise like hailstones. I didn’t really give it a thought. Unusual for the time of year – even in Britain – but not unheard of.

So when Rachel woke me up at 2.30am to investigate the sound of running water I was not best pleased. I had not heard her fully describe the issue though – probably due to my general sleepiness and string of bad language at being woken up for what seemed a trivial thing.

I put on the first pair of boots came across, normal ankle high work type boots, and stepped out the back door to have a quick look and placate Rachel.

Not a good idea. The water flowed over the top of my boots up my leg.

We had a major flood. It was lapping at the step of the back door. Wheelie bins were floating around as were half their contents and the kids tent was completely washed out.

Our garden has two level, it is lower near the back door then steps up halfway towards the back. The entire lower level was no basically a pond.

There was not much I could do at 2.30 in the morning beyond checking that it our hose pipe was off and we had no leaks anywhere – i.e. the flood was the result of the downpour and nothing else.

Next morning it turned out we had a blocked drain. Between the upper and lower level of the garden there is a drainage channel. This had over the years become totally blocked. So I had to left the grills and dig out the gunk, then grab an old tent pole to ram down the actual outlet until I finally freed the blockage and all the water rushed away.

Not the Sunday morning I had in mind.

Anyway – the reason for relaying all this was more interesting. The drainage channel outlet is under a very vibrant bush we have – so I had to crawl under this to get to it and start the business of unblocking it. While is was busy ramming it in I looked up and found myself face to face with this little fella!

It seems nature was quick to capitalise on the situation and this frog decided he was going to move in to this ready made pond before anyone else.

Not sure what he is going to do now his pond has disappeared as quickly as it came.

Alexander was very excited and had named him Mexico, as this is the team he is in for the school sports day tomorrow. Something we only found out a few days ago which is why the rest of Sunday was spent trying to find a Mexico football team green t-shirt for him. Thanks for that school.