General Chat

On the main road in the village there is a thatched cottage. It has stood behind it's hawthorn hedge. like most of the cottages in the village, in it's little garden. through various tenants during my lifetime.

It was sold again quite recently and a digger moved in to expand the garden on to a piece of field that had evidently been purchased. I thought that might not be a bad idea as it would give them a bit of a turning space so the cars didn't have to back out and maybe there would be a bit of vegetable garden there too.

The hawthorn hedge has gone now, grubbed out and replaced by a white picket fence shouts loudly around it now. There is a big, expensive chicken house at one end now, with a few hens and a rooster, wouldn't want their problems soon!

There is an arch in one fence, there are two now, an inner and an outer with the compulsory four wheel drive parked in between and a duck pond with an expensive wooden duck house on an island in the middle and a sort of moat dug behind the cottage.

I do enjoy passing the cottage and seeing what part of country life the new occupants have bought now, I think the latest might be the St Bernard I saw today which must take up about a quarter of any room in the cottage.

What next I am wondering, will it be a goat or a horse, and will the man of the house soon be leaning on the gate in roundcoat and gaiters, chewing a straw?

:-D :-D

Incomers!!!

Much more fun to create your own rickety hen house, dig your own pond etc.

Ducks, obviously! :-D

(Have you checked to see if the occupiers are MP's??)

Det

:-D

Hmm - ducks.
Are they penned in? Do they realise the damage they can cause to a pristine bought-in garden?
Mine had a huge run - and an old bath full of water sunk into the run.
They were allowed out of the run every day, only because the veg plot was fenced in!!!
Ducks are all beak & poo! :-|

How sad to hear the hedge has gone, wonder if many birds nested in it in the past and now have to find new homes for next year?

I hope you find the new owners will be decent people despite their penchant for fancy new status symbols etc Maybe they are lottery winners, splashing out!

I am sure Fred will find out soon enough and let you know lol


Lizx

No hedge, no garden, everything on show and the wind won't half be hustling across there come the winter. There doesn't look like much greenery for the ducks to devastate and, anyway, with a rooster and a few enterprising hens they will probably be over-run with cockerels crowing and fighting within a couple of years, there's plenty of room outside the garden to hide a nest.

I wonder how they will enjoy having the rats around too.

I think they had probably been coming dahn 'ere on holiday and thought how much they would like to buy into the rural idyll.

Did they get planning permission to extend the garden into the field?

methinks they are in for a rude awakening in the not too distant future and that the "For sale" sign will be going up :-D

I don't think you need planning permission to extend your garden. Anyway I wouldn't know about what permission they might have had, I am just enjoying the antics.

sounds as if it could be the basis of an excellent TV sitcom :-D

. . . and Sharron could play a starring role :-D

I'm sure I've read of cases where home owners have had to dig up their extended gardens and return that bit to 'field status'. It was probably due to the field being agricultural land.

I don't think so because there is no permanent structure there.

Possibly diversion of a watercourse would need permission from Southern Water who might become involved if there was a large pond involved, they own all bodies of water above a certain size and it is not very big.

It would be different if the land was common as well I think.

It sounds as though they are making improvements.

It doesn't sound as though it is fancy new status symbol to me, just probably people who are improving their property.
I know that many years ago when I moved into a village I also carried out many improvements to have a more comfortable life, did not want to live in the nineteenth century.

George :-)

the hawthorn hedge - a house in our village had planted a tall hedge behind a low wall, but some new owners took it down. However the road side included the bus stop and shelter, and they found their wall was being used as a seat, especially by the young who used the site as a social meeting place - a new hedge is now quite a good height for their privacy!

Found this:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2290181/Grandmother-spent-10-000-turning-muddy-field-idyllic-garden-ordered-rip-breaching-greenbelt-planning-rules.html

You sure you wanted to live in a village George?

That cottage, facing a main road and an open field beyond, with no barrier to the wind, has always had a hedge in front of it because that cottage has always needed one.

A big muddy duck pond brings comfort to nobody.

The ducks probably like it.

Yes Wend, they probably do. Not that they have a great deal of choice in the matter.

I bet they would appreciate a bit of hedge to get under in the sun.

St Bernard, Ducks, Chickens, muddy pond? All sorts of scenarios come to mind! Better keep your camera ready, Sharron.