Lights, Craft & Tango!

Lots going on today so I have to make this a quickish post!
K is coming home from Uni for the night for mothers day! Which is super, I always look forward to seeing her! My old friend C, is coming to stay for the night with her family, you may remember her from the wedding back in May last year!


The equestrian lights have become an issue again! I can't believe this is happening, since they angled the lights down they have been alot better, and although we don't like them we could live with them.
These are the lights angled down


Suddenly this last week up they went and we are bathed in a sea of light again!!
Angled up.

I think you can see the difference, even though they are not good pics!
Hubby went down and had a chat and apparently the light bulbs keep blowing! When they got the 'cherrypicker' in (cost £500, each time) they angled the lights up to change the bulb and loads of water came out, so this is why they are angled up again!! Hubby said to them had they got a specialist in, in the first place they wouldn't be having this problem, they sort of agreed!! The ironic thing is I contacted the Equestrian Lighting specialist, told him what had been happening and he roared laughing and said it made 'good bedtime reading' and is prpared to visit if they wish!

I have been crafting,





but what will it make, well I'm sorry you will have to wait and see!!

Finally I ordered some Cards from Joanna Twinn at Higgledy Piggledy. I have had some before and love them. They are great to jot a note on and post.





I am convinced she modelled these on my Tango!

Anger and Sadness

Anger at the farce that was called a Parish Council Meeting, at my so called friend who is a Parish Councillor being congratulated on her attempts at mediation between the 2 parties and steaming anger at the fact she so graciously thanked everyone!
But they have not won yet, round 2 is about to begin!

Sadness at the sudden death of my Aunty, who had cared for many people , she was a nurse, been a good friend to many more. She was married to my mother's brother, an alcoholic, she stuck by him through thick and thin until his death in 2004. She had just recently sold her house and found a lovely flat and was beginning life afresh. She was also my mothers twin they shared the exact same birthday and birth year mum had known her since they where 14!
Mum is feeling very vunerable at the moment.

I had planned to contact the specialist again re: 'the pain' which is slowly creeping back, but I may have to put it off as I will have a funeral to attend next week.

Beautiful Brugmansias!

Well a fat lot of good all the consultation with the equestrian centre has done, they believe they have done 'everything practicable' and have resubmitted the planning application!!! I presume by 'everything' that 2 letters, 2 switch on of lights and one meeting plus altering the angle of the lights is everything?? We shall hit the council now!!!!!!

I had my first home grown tomato



its called Black Cherry, and it has lovely thin skins and boy what a taste, definately recommended!

Some of my Brugmansias have come into flower and I only wish you could smell them

This is one of my new ones Brugmansia Herzenbrucke the scent is unbelieveable






I am a little disappointed with the colour, but presume its because it is a young plant. It should look like this



This is my good old faithful, which has been flowering none stop through all the rain



and the beautiful Sanguinea



I am having a right old battle with the slugs, they adore Brugmansias and off course this lovely wet weather has helped them breed prolifically. So I am sad to say I have had to revert to slug pellets + I have pots of salted water around the garden and I now do an early morning and late evening patrol with a large shovel!!!

The air at night recently has become suddenly very autumnal, well thats what my tropical plants are telling me, I have recorded 6C and some of them are suffering! We are in the process of re-doing part of the patio, it was a matter of having to, we have a down pipe that all the rain water from the flat roofs goes down to a soak away, it is ridiculous, so we have bought an extremely large water butt which is currently being installed, sadly I had to dig up my caster oil plant, I was surprise how small the root was for such a big plant, anyway it has been replanted and as I always say 'it has two chances'.

Fortunately I am away for a few days, I say fortunately because it will make me rest my back as I have done far too much yet again and its twitching!! I'm off with Tori to visit my sister, I shall be leaving the workers to fend for themselves!!!!

Something Different!

As you look out of the upstairs window you can see the equestrian centre. Can you see the lights?


I zoomed inso you can see exactly what it is we can see! Now imagine it in the winter, no leaves on the trees and very dark....


you can see how rural we are from this pic



swallows on the wire, cows in the fields and very few houses!
So a meeting was held at our house on Monday and there where 9 of us present. The equestrain centre agreed to purchase 'barndoors' these wrap round the lights and direct the light downwards this would take about a month to organise and then they would light up at the end of August and we could see if it was better!
So imagine my surprise when at 9.30pm last night a note was put through the door saying 'the lights have now been re-adjusted and now comply with the guidelines of the Institute of Lighting Engineers. Hopefully how the lights have now been set you will find them less obtrusive and we will have allied your concerns! The lights will be switched on friday night for you to view them and I will call around to see how much the lights show at your address!!!!!!!!!!!!!!'

FUMING! MAD! DOWN RIGHT ANNOYED!

1. Since monday the lights have not moved!
2. Where the wife and daughter who came to the meeting ventriloquists and not spokes person?
3. Was anything we said taken on board!
4. We live at our address and not them and it is our opinion not theres!
5. As stated at the meeting it is still summer and there are too many leaves on the trees to give us a true idea of what the lights will be like in winter!!
6. Will we trust them again if they come to a meeting?

On a 'lighter' note (excuse the pun!)

we lit the front fire its been so cold



and it was so toasty warm when I came down this morning. Sassy was curled up on her beanbag in the corner



tango was trolling around seeing if anyone was available to fuss him



so off to vent my anger on something!
If the weather clears this weekend I can get on with your surprise!!!

Catch you later!

Later!

The trip to the planning office turned out to be very fruitful. Apparently I remain anonymous which is fine, he will have to apply for planning permission for the stables, which again is fine, I don't even mind them being there its the principal! They will look into the change of use of his 'farmyard' and fields and if necessary make him apply for planning permission!
Now the floodlights! I asked what would be the chance of getting them removed totally even though they have been up for 3 years and it is possible, so I have set that ball in motion too, if they light up tonight I have to drive to varying places and take pics (which I can do)to show how far it shows up!!
I am pleased and will keep you posted, not that I'm sure your in the least bit bothered, but this is my blog and I'll tell you anyway!!!lol!!!!!

What do you think you can do with this ..................



I know Monty Don made a Cold Frame from 2 pallets, which I was actually going to do. I changed my mind and after a bit of hard graft, pulling, pushing, hammering I got this...



I know its wonky, but then everything in our house and garden is wonky so I had to continue the theme! I have the other pallet to pull to pieces and fill the gap. I'm quite pleased. Wilkinsons is selling 2 clematis for some silly price so I thought I would buy a spring flowering one and a summer flowering one and once they get going you will never know its made of pallets. Its my version of a picket fence!!!!!!! Not bad for a couple of hours work.



This is sassy, being helpful or not as the case may be!!!!

Can you believe this weather? I have been outside in a t-shirt today!!! The coal has been delivered, you watch the temp rise now we forked out all that money for the flipping coal!!! I wonder if we'll use it????????

Off to the Planning Department!!!

We had an equestrian centre built down the road about 2 years ago. We didn't realise the plans had floodlights, which are turning out to be a total pain in the backside. Imagine driving into the countryside at night and seeing in the middle of the dark a football stadium lit up!!! Well thats what is 400yds from my house!!!! So anyway I was checking his plan information on line and they have a proviso thats says the lights can only be on between 08.00 and 18.00 Mon to Sat. They are reguarly on after this so I thought, what else is going on!!!!!
Last year this, Farmer (N) lost his hay barn to a massive fire and has built a new one, but within this new haybarn he has built 8 stables and guess what the plans show only a hay barn and no stables!!! It also stated that it was still a farmyard which it is not, I also need to find out the field numbers surrounding to see if he has applied for change of use from agricultural to whatever it is now! I am hopping mad at this for a couple of reasons:

1. We have another farmer (B) (nasty piece of work) in our village who thinks nothing of building without planning permission, acquiring land by fencing and maintaining it and (N) keeps a very close eye on him and is the first on his case!!!

Yet he goes and does this! Unbelieveable, its that saying 'whats good for the goose'!!!

2 He's a parish councillor!!!

I know what will happen I will go and lodge my complaint and 'nothing' will happen!! Because he has money, contacts and good lawyers he will get away with it!!! But I will do it all the same because he is definately in the wrong!!!!

For those of you who maybe considering moving to the country let me warn you, it is very 'feudal'. We have 3 farmers, well actually 2, plus one who thinks he is, but has money and land. They rule the land around here, buy up all the cheap property, do it up and sell it on at a huge profit. Let their tractor drivers, drive you off the road!! etc. etc.

Keep yourself to yourself and your fine. Hubby & I stood up against them (2 of them) when they wanted to build a massive dairy farm in a most inappropriate place. We rallied the troops and won!!! So we are not popular, alot of neighbours stick there heads in the sand as they don't want the repercussions, we stand up and wave a huge red flag and say we are watching!!!!

We'll get it blown up one day!!!! Back later to let you know what happened!!!