April 2014
Over at Hatfield House the other day I couldn’t help but notice the amount of noise from the nearby railway. With such a grand and historic residence, home of a line of Lord Salisburys and the young Elizabeth I, you’d imagine its gardens to be a haven of tranquility. But sadly not. Every other minute the peace is disturbed by the clatter of one of the many trains racing past only a few
February 2014
In between reading the Book Club choice Longbourn, which is an imaginative take on life below stairs in a sequel to Pride and Prejudice, I have been revisiting Julius Caesar’s Gallic Wars. I remember the drudge of having to translate passages from Latin while at school. Now, more than 50 years later, they make a fascinating read. Putting aside the million-odd deaths he was responsible for,
December 213
It’s Christmas Day and for the first time in many years there has been no snow this month. Remember about 4 years ago when Hemel came to a halt in mid-December and the snow stayed until January? Today has been sunny, mild and dry, just like most Christmases. Yesterday we went to the children’s carol service at St Mary’s Church. It was just as well
November 2013
Hemel was in the news again recently, reprising a role with which it has become depressingly type-cast: Britain’s ugliest town. Yes, Crap Towns, that bible of all that’s pants in town planning, has been at it again. Hemel beat the likes of Luton and Hatfield in a poll of unidentified voters. But what’s this? A letter to The Times, no less, defending its
October 2013
Somewhere in Lithuania right now there is an old red lawnmower newly arrived all the way from Piccotts End! For nearly 20 years our Westwood ride-on had been keeping the grass down. We inherited it with the house when we moved here in 2003 and it proved to be a very reliable performer. However it finally gave up the ghost this month and
August 2013
It’s always fascinating to hear about the comings and goings of your home’s former owners. A chance meeting in a Devon car park has put us in touch with someone who lived in our house back in the1950s. In our case we were on the trail of the Mrs Inglis who lived at Marchmont Cottage between 1951 and 1973.
We wanted to know about the house’s early history, and about stories that it had a secret underground passage and a ghost! Hearing that she had moved to Branscombe in Devon,
July 2013
Mingling with guests at the Piccotts End summer garden party on another scorching hot day I was amazed to learn just how many boffins inhabit the village. We have professors, doctors, scientists and IT experts, not to mention a clutch of lawyers and media luminaries in our midst. My latest ‘discovery’ is that one of our committee members,
July 2013
My journey to work through the leafy lanes of Gaddesden always provides some points of interest. Last month I spotted two men planting hundreds of saplings in the hedgerows. John and Nathan of JHP Services told me they had been contracted by the Gaddesden Estate to fill in the gaps in the hedgerows with some 4000 hawthorn, hazel, holly, dog rose and dogwood.
It’s part of a Government-subsidised scheme to revive a quintessential feature of the English countryside.
May 2013
What’s happened to the roundabout at the entrance to Piccotts End? Since it was last cut by the council in April the grass has turned a deathly yellow. Is this in preparation for a makeover by the funeral directors J. Worley who are the current sponsors? If so I wonder what they have in mind. The trend these days is for sponsors to make
April 2013
Continuing my tour of the cafes and tea shops of Hertfordshire my latest destination was The Hub in Redbourn. This has previously been a newsagents, a pet shop and a ski shop. Today it’s a cafe with a clever and novel string to its bow, or should I say spoke in its wheel, because it’s also a cycle repair shop.