Unclogging the Garden Spigot

Being shut indoors all morning left me restless, so I slipped out the rear cellar hatch into the enclosed tenement garden. Over by the ivy-covered stone wall, an old brass garden tap sat dry above a muddy drain trough. The threaded spout was choked with dried moss and a plug of dead grass clippings blown in by the wind. I braced my boots against the damp masonry, gripped a stiff fallen twig, and worked it circular around the brass thread until the dry plug crumbled and fell away into the gravel below. The brass mouth is clear now, ready to run without backing up into the wall.