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<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\tThe other big excitement of the week has been the Cleansing of the Driveway<\/em> organised, co-ordinated, produced, directed and carried out by the ever-driven Ms Playchute. Every couple of years Penelope attacks the driveway and painstakingly, on her hands and knees, scraps out all the weeds, incipient ash seedlings and other debris from between the bricks (often times, it seems, with the innocent assistance of her sister J). When she\u2019s finished it always looks great but, as you can imagine, it\u2019s pretty labour-intensive. And, bear in mind that she gets little, if any, assistance from me!<\/p>\n On this occasion, however, Penelope decided to save her back and knees and to employ a much more exciting and labour-friendly approach \u2013 she raced off to the tool hire emporium in Banbury and returned with an industrial-sized power washer capable of scouring centuries of accumulated grime and grunge off any surface in a heartbeat.<\/p>\n The thing about power-washers, however, is that they essentially move dirt and grit around, they don\u2019t actually get rid of it. (While I was thinking about this, I was reminded of Sandy\u2019s story of power-washing his BBQ). Basically, you blast the crap out of the dirty driveway and back patio with a super-charged spurt of water and all the grit, sand, dirt, bird crap, weeds and accumulated muck explodes up\u00a0off the bricks\/slabs as if shot from a gun. It seems, however, that most of what you detonate\u00a0off the driveway ends up all over you. The driveway is immaculate \u2013 Ms Playchute resembles the Creature from the Black Bog!<\/em><\/p>\n Win \u2013 win!<\/p>\n Love to you all,<\/p>\n Greg<\/p>\n PS – I read an article in the Guardian on Friday<\/a> which said that the Banksy Spies Mural I wrote about a few weeks ago<\/a> has been sold. It has been sold to a private collector who will have the render\u00a0removed from the building and the mural will be\u00a0on display in a London gallery for a month or so while the new owner has a specialist frame built so that it can be displayed in his home.<\/p>\n Local residents and business groups in Cheltenham say its removal would be a “huge loss” to the spa town.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Glad we got to see it before its disappearance.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We\u2019ve had a grand spell of good weather and we\u2019ve enjoyed a couple of \u201cfun\u201d events this week \u2013 what more could anyone want? The weather has been very pleasant \u2013 warm and sunny with a touch of breeze to keep it from feeling too hot \u2013 we even had Annabelle\u2019s paddling pool out once … <\/p>\n![\"power_washing\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.stragnell.com\/befoulednews\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/power_washing-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C263\")
<\/a>Not only did this little beauty blast out all the weeds, sludge and saplings from the cracks in between the bricks, but the bricks themselves were transformed in seconds into showcase-worthy splendour, as if the drive had been laid the day before! When she had finished with them, the paving slabs\u00a0at the back positively sparkled while the patio table looked as fresh as the day it was delivered. Anything which was standing still was power-blasted in the blink of an eye.<\/p>\n