The Downpipe of Doom!

 You know that someone really, really loves their Wisteria...

...when they do this:

Isn't that hilarious?  Four right-angle bends, and a vertical section hanging in mid-air, all to get the downpipe past the immense Wisteria stems.

Here's a closer look at what they did: can you see, there's a very stout bracket, which is taking the weight of the stems: every window on the ground floor has two of these brackets, one to each side, and all painted black, to blend in.

As a gardener, I completely admire their dedication to the plant.

Presumably this is one of the sights of south Oxfordshire, when it flowers, so they didn't want to take the other, more obvious course, ie chop down the Wisteria, and let it grow again. 

(And yes, I will be going back that way as often as I can, over the next few weeks, to check on progress!)

The easier, but drastic, option, would have given them a chance to check all the window lintels, to check the fabric of the building for damage and damp: and they wouldn't have had to install this Heath-robinson contraption, which presumably clogs up in at last two places, and probably has to be cleaned out and emptied, twice a year.

But it would have meant a whole season, maybe two, with no flowers.

And this, dear Reader, is why I never allow Wisteria in my charge to grow behind a downpipe!

 

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