Saturday, October 01, 2005

Widney Lane, neighbours and the woods


all done and I am at the bus stop where the gas light used to be opposite my bedroom













footpath today but was a double hedge




















these two houses were commenced in 1939 and roofed and finished after 1945 when the men came back from the war















the way into the wood originally a coppice called Parish Poles




typical mid-england
oaks and holly bushes and ivy






danger volts and a musical humming with overtones the old transformer was painted a cheerful green





















this was ploughed field









the gable above the bay is original







bay window with original tiles












the original gables were removed at my mothers wish when she got a new roof done

230 Widney Lane Solihull

this is the third phase in the life of this house which was my childhood home

about 1938 rented by my father


about 1945ish purchased by my widowed mother cheaply as a sitting tenant

My danish artist friend thinks the front door is horrible and badly proportioned.


the apple tree has grown well with my mother's ashes spread at its foot











This wall is too big and boring for a corner house,
so I suggest virginia creeper would cover this architect's lack of imagination

I took some photoraphs in Copenhagen Denmark
snaps: blank walls as examples.

Ivy is easier to maintain, typical of Warwickshire, and in Kew gardens there are examples of about 70 varieties

Once a year you take a ladder and cut it back from gutters and windows. These plants protect walls, defeat graffitti and it is a fallacy that they harm walls - as long as you do not pull the creeper off but let it die back naturally and fall off no harm is done.

I have just eaten some black grapes grown on one of the Copenhagen vines on a similar sunny wall, or an enormous rose would please many of the neighbours
Espalier fruit trees need more care but it is fun to eat your own apples and pears.













this shows the original deep red facing bricks with white cement pointing, and in this corner I saw my first christmas tree in about 1939.
Later wood anemones I got from the Parish Poles coppice grew well here because the micro-climate is cold and damp.







































































































230 Widney Lane Solihull