Saving trees ~ the planet ~ and 90p

I took a walk to the village on Tuesday.  The sun was shining and the skies were blue... but it was cold.  So I wrapped up warm and put on my rucksack to carry back my shopping.

There was once a great beech wood to the south of my village... before all the modern building began in the 1970s.  My house sits where once majestic trees graced the area.  I didn't know all this before I moved here.  But it makes me sad to know that nearly all of them were cut down to make way for housing estates......... and my house included.

When I moved to the village in 2004 there was still a few of these beautiful trees lining the side of the road from my house towards the village...... for half a mile.  Nearly all of them have been cut down now.... and in their place are large wooden stumps that once reached into the sky and gave us oxygen to breath in exchange for our 'polution' of carbon dioxide.  But the cycle of life still goes on as the trees have died so fungi comes to life.

Some fungi is pretty and some not so pretty.  Well this fugus falls into the latter...... and then some!

A bit closer............

........ and closer still.

There is ivy and twigs and all manner of stuff growing in it ... through it.... and around it.  Fascinating!

So.... as I said I walked to the village.  Here is the village.... looking towards the north.  Quiet isn't it?

I promised that I would keep you up to date with the restoration to our oldest pub.  Well here it is with all the scaffolding off.

It's not finished yet..... as you can see.  But the pavement has been altered and the road narrowed to accommodate the new bay window.  

 Let's hope it is worth all the disruption when it is completed.

Right across the road from the pub is a briliant green grocer and butcher.   I like to buy my vegetables from here as it is a little independant shop. 

As you can see they sell wood for the fire..... plants for the garden.... soil for pots..... milk for your tea.... cans of 'pop' for the young people...... and every sort of vegetable for me!!!

The little Westy isn't for sale................ unfortunately!

After buying all my veg, my bag was so heavy, I decided to catch the bus home.  Shhhh .... don't tell anyone ... but I got my over 60s bus pass earlier this year and still hadn't used it.   Before my illness I would have walked the mile home and enjoyed the 'work out' with the heavy bags.  But now I can't .... so I gave in and used my free bus travel pass.

So I saved my legs..... my energy..... and 90p....................... LOL

I would have been happier if I hadn't needed to have a 6" long paper ticket as well as a plastic pass.  I'd like to think that taking the bus would mean I was helping the planet....... but obviously bus companies don't know about saving trees.  Ah well...... can't save everything.

As you can see, the walk from the bus stop to my house is quite pretty.

And I saw daffodils peeking out from behind an ancient tree..........

........... and grape hyacynths hiding in the grass .......

Spring is definately here :-)



With all my talk of the once great beech wood I thought I would blog about one of those majestic trees later this week.

But for now I close with blessings to you all, Willow x

Goings on in the village

Just a quick update on goings on in the village.  I'm refering to our pub :-)

The rendering is all off the south side nearest to the Tescos and the new sewage pipes have their trench dug.

The old archway is now all exposed and ready to have all the in-fill removed.

The foundations are all in for the new and probably impressive bay window (the cause of all the road narrowing and road closures).

There doesn't seem to be much left of the old, original, pub but I'm sure it will look old when it is finished.  I discovered today that the pub has been in a state of restoration/repair for well over 10 years, so I'm sure everyone in the village will look forward to it looking less like an eye-sore.

The Village

I took a walk into the village today to get shopping.  I don’t normally walk when I have so much shopping to do but the village is impassable at the moment, and to get to the shops at the north end of the village I would have to drive south into the next village, then on to the roundabout and join the bypass, then drive a further mile or two along the bypass, and join the village at the north end.  The local ‘Lord of The Manor’ is restoring one of the terrible rundown pubs in the village to its former glory with a bay window!!!  So for 6 weeks our village is closed!!!  It doesn’t matter that the pub has looked derelict for at least 10 years……. now is the time to disrupt the whole community and cause chaos to the independent retailers.  The jeweller’s is closed until October… not sure if that is because of the road-works or for some other reason. 

Anyway I thought I would show you what my walk was like today.

Here is the first notice to say road is closed

The trees are decidedly autumninal

The road to the west is closed as you can see..... so no detour there with the car... and the two roads running east are also closed with access only with police waiting to give motorists an on-the-spot fine :-(

Cars and trucks still think they can get through somehow so ignore the signs

But as they get nearer they can see that barricades block the whole road

Here is a view of the pub and road closure from the north end of the village

But despite the chaos, the day ended beautifully with this wonderful sunset ...........

So I suppose we will manage and get used to the disruption.  Well there are far worse things happening in this world than the road closures in a small village in Yorkshire :-)

Blessings,




ps...... I'll post pictures of the pub when it is 'restored to it's former glory'