A Post About A Post.

 Lots of sun today and windy too later on.

The signpost, giving parking restriction information, on the pavement at the bottom of the garden has been a constant source of irritation. It spoils our view and messes up my photos. I did contact the council asking if it could either be reduced in height to match its 3ft high brother about 20ft away or even got rid of completely. Do we really need to have two signs saying the the same thing so close together? Apart from an automatic acknowledgement we heard nothing for many months. Peter rang to see what was happening and during the conversation was asked if we would be prepared to do the work ourselves which we could do. And so we have been thinking about shortening the pole.

However, less than two hours after taking the top photo I looked out of the window and saw the pole leaning at a strange angle.

Channelling my inner detective I went out to have a closer look and soon worked out what must have happened. On one side there was a tow-bar shaped dent with a long scrape above,

while on the other side the pole was split most of the way round. My conclusion - a large vehicle such as a truck or camper had parked up on the pavement and then reversed too far almost knocking the pole over and then made a hasty exit. With so little holding the pole up I decided it would be safer to take it right off, which was quite easy to do and now it's tucked up against our garden wall. That left the problem of what to do about the sharp stump sticking out of the pavement. A trip hazard for anyone walking along the pavement and it would rip up the tyres of anyone parking on the pavement. (It isn't legal to park on the pavement but as the road isn't very wide people often do.) I put a couple of large stones on either side of the stump first but then dragged a heavy concrete planter out and put that over it to make it safe. Peter will phone the council on Monday and see if he can persuade them to remove the sign or shorten it.

The view is so much nicer without that pole in the way.

In the afternoon Peter went into town to do some shopping and I carried on with the shelves (can't call it a cupboard any more). There were some fiddly bits to do like cutting wood to fit against the shape of the skirting boards and working out how to fill some of the bigger holes that had spaces behind them. Eventually I was able to begin filling all the other holes and cracks with Polyfiller. I'll be the first to admit that my plastering skills are negligible but most of what needed doing was at the back of the alcove and will be hidden by the books on the shelves. So all I'm doing is a general tidying up. I'm getting excited by the thought of filling those shelves and working out the design of the bookshelves on the opposite wall.

I don't know if anyone else is having trouble with their photos but twice the photos went on in reverse order. I suppose I could have selected them in reverse order to get them to appear in the correct order but to be on the safe side I put them on one at a time. A bit of a time waster.