weekend

Well its monday again. We did another market at Wellingborough. Have decided we will continue there till Christmas Eve and then try some others. Made only £6 after fuel to get there and the hire of stall so not a good day and a complete waste of time really - stood out in the cold. A guy on an opposite stall was £1100 down on the same saturday last year so it must be bad. Not a good time for me to be considering going solo maybe. Difficult to decide what to do. The place was empty. Good for us to actually do that day tho cos we proved we can do high winds and rain. Not that anyone but us actually cares but really its good to find these things out. If we had not done it I would have wondered if we are just fine weather market traders but we are not. We can survive adverse weather. Stayed there till about 4pm and then spent £16 of takings on supplies at local Tesco. Going to enquire about doing Coventry after xmas. For now will continue where we are and maybe those few days before xmas will make it all worth while. We will see. Sunday parents came over with tons of stuff they have cleared from my Grannies house. Its goes up for sale 1st January. There are loads of big garden pots, a tumble drier ( could actually save us money cos right now we have to have a dehumidifier on constantly due to drying washing inside and its working out more expensive than using a tumble drier!) Loads of bath towels which we really need - dogs can now have old ones which will be good for them and us. Tho Grandma apparently didnt go in for big bath sheets which we prefer but then they are all free so we will manage and there is a whole suit case full. Also a washing machine which is great cos mine is dying and best of all a wooden bench which my paternal Grandfather bought for my Nanna in 1952 and then when she died she left it to my Grandma ( my mums mother). All slightly strange but now I have it. Its in great condition considering its loads older than me. Apparently I have to oil it every year so will have to remember that. I think once the summer comes we will put it next to the pond so we can sit and feed and watch the fishes. Lovely! Only problem now is we have limited time to get the house sorted and have 2 huge TVs in lounge and boxes everywhere. I am intending to try and freecycle the old one. It works perfectly. Is larger than the new one and is a Sony Trinitron so surely someone will want it. Seems criminal to go sending it to landfill and we have another almost as good in the garden shed. Maybe I should freecycle both infact! Only keeping new one cos in theory being several years younger it should ultimately go for longer. I hate taking risks with this sort of thing but we cant keep them both and there is no where we can store it so one of them has to go! Still no word from the local council about giving mediation between us and next door over this hedge. I just wish I could see her face when they tell her if she carries on shes going to get an ASBO - whether she works for a solicitor or not. AND whether she thinks we are scum or not. hey ho. I `d like to be a fly on the wall for that one. What we will do if she does continue wrecking our lovely garden after that tho I really do not know. Nearly Xmas. Break from boring work on friday but have markets saturday, and right up till xmas eve. Then if all is ok will have 2-3 weeks off and then start up again in different town. I do hope 2009 is a good year for us.

councillor

The councillor came round yesterday. I was out but M was there. She has confirmed the neighbour cannot/ is not allowed to cut our hedge. They are going to put us in touch with someone to try and sort it out before its gets any worse. Thank goodness for that at least. All we want to do is live there and not have hassles. Hopefully the neighbour will decide to leave us in peace. I have a suspician she will not be happy tho. I think its some sort of mediation but if it enables us to all get along ( after all you dont have to LIKE your neighbours just be able to live along side of each other) then all will be fine. I am dreading her finding our we went to the local council tho. Councillor had a look at all of our garden and likes it even with it being messy and half finished so it cant be that bad whatever next door says. Thats a relief anyway cos you never do know what the council will say do you. Anyway hopefully this problem will get sorted. Also councillor has confirmed the neighbour has stolen one of our trees and part of our garden!! She planted this hedge the day after we moved in and I did think it was on our land but I am pretty easy going usually and didnt want the hassle but anyway she did steal our land. To be honest we cant be bothered with the hassle so long as she leaves our hedge alone but if she keeps up with this shes going to seriously find herself in it now. Anyway all we need to do is to wait a couple of years for her hedge to grow, remove our fence which keeps the dogs in and put up wirwe netting against the hedge she planted which is right on the boundary line and we get 99% of teh land back again. She can keep the tree. Its a leylandii and will be more hassle than its worth in a few years when folks make her get it cut down!

obnoxious neighbours

Well after we did the market yesterday we were pretty tired and just slobbed. It was a good day tho. Anyway this morning I went up the garden with my hounds trying to trip me up inbetween wrestling with each other - they are very active looney dogs believe me. Anyway I realised next door neighbour - the nosey one!!!- has yet again cut teh top off our hedge. Cheeky or what. So checked the time........well it is sunday..........and its 10:30 am so decided to go and tell her she has to stop this since shes ruining the look of our garden and it IS our hedge not hers. Anyway knocked on door and promise you I really did not shout but she did. Virtually strainght away. Apparently she works for a solicitor so I dont have a leg to stand on and she will cut my garden back when ever she feels like it. Then she shouts in my face Your garden is a MESS. the mess bit being shouted far to close to me. Very rude. Then I am told we are not good enough to be her neighbours. Who does she think she is. Honestly. So now we have to either accept her bullying us, cos bullying this certainly is, or see a solictor. Trouble is aside from the money aspects cos in the end its our garden and our land and we will afford it if we have to, but really if we go down this route I dont ever see us even getting along with this woman. Well personally I dont need to like my neighbour - tho in last house they were lovely really, but it would be good to just be able to live in peace with her if you see what I mean. And if we go and get solicitors involved I dont think even 10 years down the line we will be able to do that. She does have a point. The garden is a mess. Tho the hedge was fine till she touched in. Our efforts at demolishing the huge sheds have not helped the way the garden looks right now but it will get better and considering when we moved in it was full of rusty metal and rubbish everywhere which took us 2 skips to clear, I think shes beiong really nasty. It isnt that bad either. Its just she wants a wastleland with block paving and we want wildlife friendly hedging and arches made of trees - thats what we have. I will try to take some piccies to post cos really our garden is beautiful. Tho maybe not to block paving loving city types! She was scared of teh guy who used to own our house ( a big biker type) and we are just ordinary folk. She wont get away with this tho cos I wont be bullied!