When I got up this morning Mr C was peering out of one of the back bedroom windows and I wondered what he was doing. He informed me that one of next doors fence panels had blown out. A little while later he announced that two more panels had blown out. Storm Doris was swirling in different directions and I was a little worried that the panels might get blown about and cause some damage.

I was not able to give this problem as much thought and attention as it needed because Mr C had booked an early morning appointment with the company who had fitted our new back door. Before the door was fitted we discussed in length our exact requirements with the person who came to measure and assess the fitting; he knew exactly what we wanted. He suggested that a blank panel was fitted so that exact measurement could be taken when the door was in place. When the  top glass panel arrived it was not at all what we wanted or asked for,and was something that we could not live with.

The door should have had Georgian bars to match the windows. The new glass panel had huge squares at the bottom with smaller ones at the top. It seems to have been a miscommunication (and a badly drawn diagram by the fitter) between Mr C and the fitter who came to measure the window. Apparently the glassmaker had queried the design when asked to make the unit!  The best laid plans… Now we await a new glass panel at additional expenditure!!

After the fitter had gone, just as I was leaving for work there was a knock at the door. It was our next door neighbour who had noticed that the fence panel nearest to his house had blown into our garden. Mr C took him to assess the situation. Our neighbour was quite surprised to find that two other panels, which were obscured by shrubs in his garden had also blown into our garden. He had come round to say that his son was coming later in the day when the wind had subsided to help him move the panel. After seeing the extent of the damage he was also considering that all the fence panels need replacing.

I was rather preoccupied in the morning so I didn’t think of taking photographs. When I had regained my equilibrium I texted Mr C asking if he could take some when he got home, if it was still light enough. You can’t see the extent of the damage from these photos that Mr C took. Two of the panels had partly collapsed, the two that are missing from these photos. The third panel has for now, been put back in place.

This photo of mine from last autumn shows two of the panels are ready to disintegrate.