Love letter to a house: fence

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Of women and fences

We have two sets of neighbours - Barbara on our left (whose dog we borrow to enhance our walks) and J&M. Both sets of neighbours are well into their retirement and both have lived in their houses for several decades. L. and I really enjoy having such well-rooted neighbours - it's definitely interesting to see the older, working class British generation in action, and they are really good neighbours to have.

Having said that, Robert Frost is probably right that a good fence is the key to good neighbourly relations (this was illustrated when we had no fence at all between us and J&M and the kittens were showing a worrying interest in their prized fish). With the magnificent new fence to the right of us, I decided it was high time we did something about the fence to the left.

The poor fence, while mostly solid, has been sadly neglected, it seems, for some time.

From March

In fact, that whole side garden along the fence has long been in need of some attention.

From March

This weekend, some mad pruning, a little strategic sawing, and many coats of paint later and the front bit looks a lot more civilised.

From March

...now all that's left is the back....

Of men and fences

Last summer, our neighbours decided to assasinate one of our vines (which, granted, was colonising their garden). When the dead vine was pulled away, I think they regretted their choice as it turned out that all that separated our gardens was this ugliness:

From Briar Crescent

Last weekend, L. and neighbour dug out the old fence (if such a jumble of wood can indeed be called a fence) and, with the help of neighbour's buddy, created a magnificent new fence, starting with a nice, deep trench:

From March

And building upwards:

From March

L. used the opportunity to level out our fruit-producing area by making a retaining wall out of some old building blocks (thus making the garden look much nicer and - bonus! - saving us a trip to the recycling centre).