Saturday 1st February 2025 - First for 2025, Three Facets and Tatty Village

An upturn in the weather meant I was able to spend Thursday morning in the back garden, having a good tidy, before progressing out to the front where I still have plenty to do but was able to make a start.  I took advantage of the sun, feeling its rays on my back, as I made my way along the border with the fruit trees.  I planted the blackberry, purchased in December, in a gap between the raspberry canes.  The variety is supposed to be compact but if it gets a bit too big, I will be able to trim any unwanted growth, so that we don’t sacrifice the raspberry yields.  I may have moaned, over the past weeks about the weather, but the plants have not suffered, instead many are developing new buds and shoots.  I downed tools for a while to sit and have mid-morning coffee, sat on one of our garden benches in the sunshine; a first for 2025.  I was joined by Sid, our cat, along with his friend from next door; both enjoyed the warmth.

I was thinking, yesterday, that Overstrand Life has three facets.  Firstly, my website provides not only information about the village but a variety of links which residents, those considering moving to the village and tourists, may find useful.  Secondly, there is the more personal side to my website, where I record our day-to-day life in my blog, as well as providing links to my vlogs and published books.  Thirdly, there is Overstrand Life’s Facebook page, which is a useful tool for publishing village news and events as well as a place where villagers can ask for help/advice and for lost and found items.  Through the Facebook page, a number of items and pets have been re-united with their owners.  This year, Overstrand Life will see a milestone; come July it will have been fifteen years since I wrote my first blog before setting up a website.

In my blog for 16th January, I had to curtail my comments which were in danger of turning into a rant.  Although I don’t intend what follows to be a rant, walking around I can’t help but notice how tatty the village has become.  Here are a few examples – paint peeling off benches, others are in need of attention - a wobbly kerbstone (a positive hazard) – pot holes – plastic barricade covering a broken rail and concrete fence post which has never been repaired – rusty dog bins – rusting bus shelter – filthy, former telephone box and if these weren’t enough, the village sign garden is full of weeds.  We try to do our bit to keep the village tidy by litter picking each morning but this can, at times, be disheartening, when walking out again in the afternoon to find more litter has been dropped in an area we cleared earlier.

Today’s photo was taken this afternoon, of a gorse bush in flower on a field edge.  The bright yellow blooms have beaten the pussy willows, which are just starting to break open.