Well I have finally had to do it. Some may say that I left it far too long but in truth it was just too entertaining and only a strong sense of guilt persuaded me to take action and draw a close to the whole sordid affair.....
Sorry I may not be making myself very clear, he said with a twinkle in his eye, well what I talk of is the mirror in the garden and the gay pheasant (or at the very least the self obsessed pheasant).
I was in a shop the other day and flicking through a book written by Edward Enfield (Harry's Dad) called 'Growing to a Ripe Old Age', £6.59 at Amazon (my birthdays in February but please talk to each other 'cause I don't want six of them!) Anyhow he wrote about how he had a Pheasant reside in his garden one year and how it gave his garden some superior status without the ostentatious vulgarity that being in possession of Peacocks brings. Bingo, that hit how I felt right on the head, the fact that this wild creature roosts in the Yew tree at the back of the garden and drops down to live the best part of the day with us feels like a privilege. However I have to be realistic and understand that this Pheasant (Percy), oh and I know that I said that I must be in need of a holiday because I was wittering on about Percy well you just need to read my last blog to see that I am still in need of another holiday to recover from the first! Where was I, yes, Percy, I fully understand that Percy has only been coming into my garden for the last month because I have a mirror and he has a crush on himself.
Ok so he likes to do a little bit of jiggy, jiggy with himself at the mirror, putting on a show and a dance and stuff, well there's nothing wrong with that is there? For THREE TO FOUR HOURS A DAY! Yes, yes indeedy there is most definitely 'something' not right about that and so I felt that I needed to break his addiction and remove the mirror. There were several Black Birds having their normal biorhythms interfered with too whom also spent many an hour pecking at the thing. (That's pecking at the mirror, not the Pheasant). So reluctantly this afternoon I have withdrawn the item from the garden in the hope that normality may return to the bird life in and around The Old Bakery. The mirror itself is now covered in wing brush marks where Percy had been self abusing....
I believe that I have done the 'right thing'.
Now back to the ongoing problems of every day life of an every day simpleton (me) and this ancient building which is creaking every which way (I'd say that I meant the building was creaking not me, but actually....).
This is a tale of scepticism (not to be confused with Septic tanks) as a while ago it became very apparent that out three year old fibre glass conservatory roof and the one above the office were leaking during heavy downpours.
The obvious step was to look at the house sale documents until I could find the guarentee then call the people that installed it. Easy....
BUT....
You see my natural bias with regards to roofers is the same as it is with companies that do driveway tarmacking, Solar Panel installers and Double Glazing companies, I generally bracket them in the 'Cowboy' class. So knowing that I have the 20 year guarantee from the previous owner I naturally assumed that they would either deny all knowledge of the job or that they would have suspiciously gone out of business. My suspicions were immediately aroused when their web-site was no longer in use, "OK here we go", I thought.....
And then, after a bit of a dig around on the web I found their premises on Google Maps, went onto Street View and the business was not there. With all my worst thoughts confirmed I tried to search their name in various forms and then to my amazement, I found them and they are still based in Norwich, AND they have a web-site too.
Having then got the phone number I called them. They were extremely professional, could remember the job and arranged to come out to assess the situation in a few days. Now I am glad that they were so committed and they do seem genuinely really honourable people, especially having now met them, but I was pretty confident that they would be interested in putting my property right. Why? Well take a look at their Web-Site....
Do you see? Eh?
Yep, it's us!
WE ARE THEIR SALES PITCH! It is our conservatory roof that they are holding up as a beacon of their quality.
So yes, I was pretty confident that they would want to help us.
In all fairness one of the main Partners came, was really nice and helpful, totally accepting that the previous owners guarantee was still valid, checked the building and has agreed to put it all to rights. It is worth reading their site as they appear really good at what they do and they do some pretty unusual things. It appears that my roofer specialises in both the installation of roofs and the creation of dinosaurs, now that I can tell you is definitely NOT Normal for Norfolk.... or anywhere else!
Once again the Norfolk builders have stood out above the rest and with the exception of a couple of oddities when I first moved up here I will once again heap praise on all the Artisans that I have had the pleasure to hire.
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It has been such an incredibly warm January this year and really clear skies at night too. The bulbs in the garden are well ahead of last year with the daffodils and crocus popping up left, right and centre. The clear skies have afforded us excellent sunsets along with those very special Norfolk 'Big Skies'. I wanted to get some sunset photos a few weeks back but missed timed my leaving the house and quickly realised that I would not get to my original destination in time and so pulled off the road by a field to turn around when I realised that I needed to look no further. For there right in front of me was this 200 year old oak (perhaps) with a wonderful sky behind it. Sometimes fortune takes over events. I have taken absolutely hundreds of sunsets because they are just wonderful. I used to have a colleague at work who had a flat that looked over the fields near Reigate and I remember her telling me how she and her husband loved to watch the sunsets and always took photos of them. Too many people carry on with their everyday lives and don't stop and think which street do I have to walk up to see this sunset properly. I admire anyone who goes out of their way to enjoy a good sunset for those are the people who know how to appreciate the wonder of life itself.
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