Over the
past two months that we've been living in Eric, I've been having
flashbacks. A long forgotten memory of being scared silly keeps
coming back. The film was about a large hairy bog creature thing
that tormented a family in a trailer – well that's what I remember.
A scene where a large hairy arm comes in through an open window
remains etched in my brain – it scared me then, and now comes back
when the dark descends over Eric. Woooo-oooh, Happy Hallowe'en!
We're
settling into trailer life in all it's glory. We're warm and largely
dry but the full eight hours sleep has eluded us for a few weeks now.
Even the little snuffles we all make in sleep sound loud in a
static, and some of us (not me!) emit long reverberating snores which
are disturbing our littlest hobo. She only has one volume setting to
her voice – foghorn – and when she can't sleep, no one can as
she complains bitterly about the snores.
Autumn
has gripped the household. Our harvest of apples, pears, plums and
greengages has astounded us.
Despite
at least three
years of neglect, the orchard of around thirty trees is still
producing large quantities of fruit. In an attempt to enthuse the
children one day, their Granny suggested a stall out front to sell
the produce. And thanks to the generosity of passing cyclists,
drivers and dog walkers they made over £20 in two days. Well into
October, we're still collecting fruit – and caterpillars. I found
one dead in my bra after apple picking one day – but as my husband
says, what a way to go!
The Planning Application continues to drive me hopping mad. The short story is that it is looking likely we will get permission for a set of diluted design plans we've put forward. Great. The long story revolves around a Planning Department that's archaic, over bureaucratic and smug. The sheer subjectiveness of their decisions astounds me. 'I don't like it so you can't have it' seems to apply. If we had been assigned another, less officious and more pragmatic Case Officer we might be getting a much more aesthetically pleasing design......
Good news is that the builders start this week taking internal walls out of the existing house, and the deep ground works should begin the day after our Planning Permission should come through – 12th November. It will be a big boost for morale to, at last, have some visible pushing forward of the project.
Whilst we are in the period of Halloween, we have been finding bones. Quite large bones. I'm not worrying too much about why they are there; I don't think they are human and that's good enough. After a conversation today regarding historical plague pits in people's gardens (still off limits for digging, just in case they can still contaminate) ….... I'd prefer to think they are bones from the odd cow or fox come to a natural end. And to add to the All Hallows theme, we have some owls that visit mid evening and hoot and hoot and hoot.
We have
a new member of the Lerway caravan team; today we were given 'Miranda
the Marauder' from some good friends who were scrapping her. She's
been put in the orchard, in her last resting place, as somewhere to
go if you want some peace!
Lastly of note, we celebrated our tenth wedding anniversary in late September. We spent the day emptying a full 16ft skip of inadvertently loaded asbestos – our alternative to the traditional giving of 'tin' to each other!
Thanks to Abi for supplying some great photos.
