For once ...

… the cosmic tumblers all click in to place.

Our garden wall is in a horrendous state. It dates back a hundred years, if not more, and acts as a retaining wall for our garden, which is four feet above the level of the road.

When we bought The Pile we were aware that it was in a dreadful state. It leant over at quite an angle and in places it had collapsed. The inside of the house had been similarly neglected and that is where we have been concentrating our efforts since we bought the place back in 2004. Recently, however, we have been making steps to replace the wall and have had plans drawn up and completed the necessary consultations with the local planning department and the Council Tree Officer.

A couple of days ago the Tree Officer dropped us a line to let us know that she is happy with our proposals and we are good to go. So this morning I finally got around to ringing a brick layer … I left him a message, asking him if he would like to contact us about providing a quote.

I then wandered in to the kitchen and looked out to see a Highways Department lorry and a number of workers in Hi-Vis jackets loitering outside The Pile. This piqued my curiosity so I headed out to ask what they were up to. A very pleasant workman advised that they were going to cut back all of the ivy that over runs our tumble-down wall and cut back the verges so that the footpath is restored to it's original width. I made sure he was aware the the Yew Trees had preservation orders, which he did, and then I went back inside leaving them to it.

About an hour later they departed with a huge quantity of soil and vegetation and I wandered out to survey the results. I couldn't believe it. The local authority had come out and performed the preliminary site clearance for our wall project without being asked and at no charge … Result!

The icing on the cake was when the Brickie rang later in the evening and we arranged for him to come out and have a look at the job on Sunday morning. He will now be able to see exactly what needs to be done and we are certain that £500 pounds of work has already been done by the Council.