Friday 16 November 2018

Birds' eye view

Our neighbours are having their roof retiled. Its quite a job. Substantial scaffolding has been erected all around the house. The roofers say the tiles are old and probably date from when the building was built as a barn in the mid eighteen hundreds. They are pantiles, the same as on our old gamekeeper's store. They are all being thrown away and replaced by new tiles that give a snug fit. The tiles on our roof are double roman and I'm hoping they will see us out!
I took the opportunity to climb up for a birds' eye view over our garden. The solar roof panels are ugly things and I'm slightly ashamed that our neighbours have to look straight at them. On the other hand, with the panels and air source heat pump,  at least we are doing our bit to try to counter global warming.

There's a good view down the length of the fruit cage.
I've removed the roof netting for the winter. 
And our septic tank can be seen in the neighbours' orchard.
(Oh, how edifying!)
But then there's the pleasure of seeing the woods and hills that surround the village.

14 comments:

  1. Too bad all the old tiles are being tossed, I wonder what you could use them for ? As for your solar roof I think in summer the tree will help cover them up ?
    Such a shame wilh all that land your homes are so close.

    cheers, parsnip and badger

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    1. Our hamlet was built for the estate workers serving the main house up the hill. We were all crammed together out of sight of the owners! Nevertheless we have more space around us than the new build houses being erected today. We have sorted a few good tiles from the many being thrown away. They may come in useful if we need to make repairs to the outhouse.

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  2. Old tiles make good paths but maybe these are to frail or
    worn .
    Merle...................

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  3. Nice views! And everything still so green where you are. Here in the US the grass is turning brown and winter is settling in. Ba humbug!

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    1. It's cold; there is a bitter wind, but yes, still green. But I'm still full of cold, or is it flu, and not worth knowing!

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  4. How beautiful! I'm impressed that you have a fruit cage complete with netting! -Jenn

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    1. We live between two areas of woodland and the fruit cage is a necessity, otherwise all the soft fruit would be eaten by pigeons. (I left the roof net on one winter and a heavy snowfall bent the metal poles. Shan't do that again - I had to buy a new cage!)

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  5. Beautiful photos Rosemary. You live in such a beautiful area! I don't think the solar panels are all that bad. I think it's great that you have solar energy!

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    1. We don't really see the solar panels without craning our necks upwards in the back garden. Not a sign of them from the front, so our neighbours really get the worst of it.
      We love the place we are in, good neighbours, lovely walks to be had and proximity to a beautiful city.

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  6. Hi Rosemary,
    We live in a late Victorian/early Edwardian house and had to have our roof re tiled a few years ago. I was so reluctant to do it as I do love to keep everything original but the old terracotta tiles had had their day and we used to lay in bed and cross our fingers in high winds, hoping the roof wouldn’t blow away !!!!! They do really good reproduction ‘old’ looking tiles now and our roof looks so much better. When I saw our old roof on Google Earth , it looked awful !!! XXXX

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    1. Glad you are now sleeping easy, Jacqueline! We had the garage block reproofed a few years ago so know that new products are excellent and produced to be site sensitive. It's just the potential mess and expense that I dread!

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