The reason I wanted to write this piece is I have noticed encouraging signs of something like a return to normal. For example, I had to take my car in for a spot of work last Wednesday, and after dropping it off at a garage on North Farm Industrial Estate, I took a stroll along to High Brooms station from where I caught the train back to Tonbridge.
My original plan had been to walk back, via the cycle-way
that runs parallel to, separate from the main A21 trunk road, but with 30
degrees of heat, and no shade, I didn’t fancy a three and a half mile walk. Instead I let the train take the strain, as the ads used to say, and was
heartened by the number of people waiting to board at High Brooms.
Arriving back in Tonbridge, I thought I’d chance getting a much needed haircut – my first since early March. Walking up to my usual barber’s I was just studying the sign on the door about how to make an appointment, when the owner popped her head out and asked if I’d made a booking.
If her thermometer was that accurate, I would have been suffering from hypothermia, so rather than relate this information I instead just smiled sweetly and said nothing. It was nice and cool in the barbers, due to the recently installed air-conditioning, and whilst in the chair, we’d chatted about trade and the situation in general. The hairdresser’s had been busy, and whilst operating mainly on an appointment basis, the proprietor said that she wasn’t going to turn away walk-up trade, if the shop was quiet.
The following day I was up extra early, as we were due to have a section of our garden fencing replaced. The contractors advised they would be on site between 7.30 and 8am, and true to form they were ringing the bell at just after 7.30am. There were just two of them, but they worked like a couple of Trojans, slaving away in the heat and high humidity of the summer heatwave.
I kept them liberally supplied with cold drinks and coffee
(most contractors drink tea, surely?), nipping out for a short while in order
to drive Mrs PBT’s to her place of work. The fencers were finished, just after
1pm, having replaced three damaged and two missing panels, along with new fence posts, where necessary.
We’d been waiting to get that job completed since the winter storms had first wreaked havoc with our fence, back at the end of last October, so that was another item to cross off the list. In the weeks leading up to the installation, I had the job of removing a Leylandii conifer hedge, that was long passed its prime, so whilst the garden looks a little bare at present, I will be planting some less rampant and far more colourful replacement shrubs.
One thing we did notice was the leaves on many of the trees were already starting to turn yellow. Some were even brown, indicating that autumn has either come early, or that the trees were suffering from a lack of water, given the near drought conditions we’ve experienced over the past few months.
The following day we drove over to Gravesend, for a socially-distanced get together in the garden, with Eileen’s brother and his girlfriend. It was quite wet on the drive over, but fortunately there was a large gazebo which kept us dry.
Keeping us wet, on the inside, was some draught beer which Mrs PBT’s brother had collected earlier from the local Iron Pier Brewery. I took a look at their website, which demonstrated that Iron Pier produce a myriad of different beers – far too many in my eyes, but their standard bitter that we glugged was a very drinkable, dark and malty 4.0% brew, which went well with the fish and chips, ordered from a local takeaway.
Getting that much needed haircut was another step in the right direction, as was that ride on the train. It was encouraging to notice a lot more passengers than on my previous journey, three weeks before, and whilst I didn’t get the chance to visit any pubs over the course of my short break, I’ve received reports from friends that suggest things are picking up too in the licensed trade.
9 comments:
Fingers crossed Paul...hopefully a semblance of normality will return. It's hit and miss in the Midlands in terms of numbers of people in pubs but some good signs...
Fairly mixed experiences in Cardiff too ranging from the near normal,ordering drinks at the bar,signing a register and sitting down,to stupidity,being told that you cannot enter an almost empty pub because you had not pre booked despite offering to leave if the place suddenly became busy. Hopefully things can only get better.
BBM and John, yes there are encouraging signs, but stupidity too - turning away "walk-in" trade because it's not pre-booked, does make you wonder about some people's business acumen!
On the flip side, there's still this drip-drip, anti-pubs, schools taking priority over pubs and restaurants, message being pedalled by the main stream media. And just this morning the "Telegraph" was running a story about a potential second, national lock-down, because the "r" rate had crept above 1 in a handful of locations (mainly deprived, inner-city urban areas).
It's almost as if some (probably those being paid to sit at home and do nothing), would actually welcome such a scenario. The "Torygraph's" feature was almost certainly "click-bait," but people tend to take such article at face-value and they cause enormous harm, to all of us longing to return to a state of normality.
We need to remain vigilant, support our pubs and other local businesses, and above all continue to call out the naysayers and doom merchants who are talking up "second waves" and "national lock-downs," before they end up becoming self-fulfilled prophesies!
I thought your hair looked good in that previous photo, if that's not weird, but it must be a relief to get shot of 6 months growth.
Like John in Cardiff, I've been required to book for a half in village pubs in Hampshire and Devon, though that's very much an exception and 95% of pubs haven't felt any different to me from in March, apart from the signing-in and a bit of directions. I don't like the directions !
Thanks Martin, it certainly was good to lose all that extra hair, even though Mrs PBT's liked it long. She claimed it made me look younger, which it probably did; a sentiment shared by several of the women at work.
Matthew and called into a local cafe for breakfast this morning, having been thwarted in our plans for a pub brecky. No signing in, and no directions; although to be fair, the place was long and narrow. Hand sanitiser by the entrance, but no instructions to use it.
This is the second cafe I've been in since the end of lock-down, and the other was pretty similar with its laid-back approach. Do different rules apply to cafes, compared to pubs and restaurants?
Places in the photos looks beautiful.
Paul, in another life, far away and long ago, my brother and I propagated and sold scores of thousands of leylandii conifers - yes, the High Hedges Act was probably in part due to us.
What I can tell you is, that those trees can only regrow from the green. So if you cut them back to old wood, then they will look like that for ever more. It generally means that if they are badly overgrown, then you have to get rid of them completely.
I don't think that it would break your heart though, somehow 😉
Etu, Leylandii conifers are the Marmite equivalent of the tree/hedge world. My father had an intense dislike of for these trees for the very reasons you mention, and he obviously passed this on to me.
Dad always reckoned that yew was the best tree for a hedge, because no matter how hard it was cut back, it would always regenerate green, from old wood. My understanding is that yew is a rather slow-growing tree, so despite its grow-back potential, it might not be especially suitable for hedging purposes, particularly if one wanted to create a barrier, as quickly as possible.
The crazy man (don’t ask!), we bought our house from, over a quarter century ago, planted the Leylandii originally, because he didn’t like his neighbour. Over the years, I slowly reduced their height to around eight foot, but because of the way they spread outwards, I ended up losing around six feet from the width of my garden.
Apart from two trees at one end, they are all gone now and I am slowly getting rid of the waste. You surmise correctly that removing them, certainly hasn’t broken my heart! I am interested though in the story of you and your brother's involvement with Leylandii, and how you changed the look of the nation’s gardens, and inadvertently caused many a neighbourly dispute!
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