This is the bottom of our swimming pool, dirty and in desperate need of painting, and with pool weather not far off.

A few weeks ago it was emptied, the flaking paint was subjected to a scraping and all the pine needles and other muck was swept up. But we forgot to buy some paint when we went to the big DIY store an hour away, and none of the local places have pool paint in stock yet... and then it rained heavily and put six inches of water back in! Not only that, but the nearby pine trees have been depositing pollen on everything - see those yellow tide-marks?

Are you with me so far?

We've pumped some of the water out again, into the cubes we store water for the veggies in, so just a couple of inches more to go and then we can clean it out once more. Hopefully we won't forget to buy the paint for a second time!