Glug, glug, splooooosh!

Our friendly neighbourhood rooferman came around this afternoon to inspect the problem.

Didn't take him long. I sometimes wish I was more use up a ladder, but above about ten feet I start to quiver and much higher than 15 feet I'm shaking so violently that the ladder starts to walk across the wall. I could never have been a roofer. Luckily for us, he can. And is. Up the ladder he went, returning after a few seconds to retrieve a length of plastic pipe from his van.

"It's either this, or I borrow your wellies," he said. "It's knee-deep up there."

!!!

A few seconds prodding about with his pipe and water began to gurgle down the main downspout. Then with an almighty rush, approximately a bath-full gushed out, overflowed the drain and ran splashing and flooding across the path and down the garden. Crikey. He climbed up into the valley and threw down a few handfuls of muck.

"Leaves, is it?" I asked knowingly.
"No," he said matter-of-factly. "Bits of tile. They're flaking so badly that bits of them are being washed down by the rain."

Eek! I got straight on the phone to the mortgage company to apply for an increased loan. There's no way we can let this go on any longer. :(