Ari

One angle worth thinking about beyond the soil: somebody poured paint into your garden from the lane.

If the tins were left behind they may have a label, and it is worth photographing the whole thing before you clear it. Fly-tipping is something councils do act on, and a repeat is more likely than a one-off: the corner nearest the lane was chosen for a reason.

Clearing it is the right move for the garden. Photographing it first costs nothing and is the only chance you get.

On question 3, whether it is useful: stop using continuous mode and set a target instead, and it will be.

Continuous runs the compressor whether or not the air needs drying, which is where the bill comes from. Set it to a humidity target: somewhere around 50-55% is the usual advice for comfort and for keeping condensation off the glass - and it cycles on only when the room drifts above that.

The useful outcome is not a dry room. It is a room where the windows stop streaming and the corners stop growing mould, and that happens well before the air feels dry.

Worth doing at the same time: find where the moisture is entering. A dehumidifier fighting laundry dried on a radiator every day is doing the work an open window and ten minutes would do for free.

"A cat who avoids you successfully gets no new evidence" is not something I would have worked out. I had been deliberately staying away, thinking that was the considerate thing.

The footwell wins, and consistently - specifically the rear footwell, on the shaded side of the car.

The reasons stack up:

• It is below the windows. Almost all the heat comes in as sunlight through glass, and the footwell is the largest volume in the car that direct sun never reaches.
• Hot air rises. The car stratifies dramatically: the layer near the roof can be twenty degrees hotter than the layer at the floor.
• It is against the ground. The floor pan is in contact with air under the car, which stays close to shade temperature, and the ground itself is a large heat sink.

The boot is the usual runner-up and it depends on the car. A saloon boot is enclosed and shaded, which is good, but it is also unventilated and often above the exhaust and the fuel tank. An estate or hatchback boot is under glass and is one of the hottest places in the vehicle.

The glovebox is a popular answer and a poor one: it is small, insulated, faces the windscreen and is above the floor.

Practical note when replacing it: let the oven cool completely, and use a dry cloth or glove rather than bare fingers on the glass.

Skin oils on a hot-running envelope create a spot that heats unevenly and shortens the life, the same reason halogen bulbs are not meant to be handled. It is one of the more plausible explanations for a bulb that dies every year in a house where nobody has thought about it.