A lovely neighbour ...
Created by Bobby and Dave one month agoWe recall the first time we met Rob and Margot …. Probably August 2001 and shortly before we moved in as their next-door neighbours.
Lending a hand on a produce stall at the Castle Square Farmers Market friends asked us about our forthcoming move …
We described the house and garden….. ‘’A conventional two and a half bedroom semi but with a very long garden and a straight concrete path running on the line of the concrete washing line posts - so the laundry can easily be hung without sidling along on wet grass”
Rob and Margot were standing next in line ….. “It sounds like you're going to be our new neighbours….”
“.... just hope you haven't got a cat!”
I answered honestly:
“No - we haven't got one. We've got two.”
We made a habit of popping a note through their letter box if we were going away ….. some months later Rob called me and said “ You don't need to give us notice when you're going away - I don't think you'll have got to the end of the road before Bruno comes round to say hello …”
Bruno went on to become ‘the community cat ….’ and we even saw Rob give him a stroke!
We were thrilled to find that Rob's gardening style was nature and wildlife friendly …. and his alert awareness of the natural world around us constant, deep and wide-ranging …. and a lovely, chatty, over-the-fence conversation could be guaranteed with him.
‘The black caps are back’
‘Have you seen the mullein caterpillars yet?
‘There used to be a holly there and I’d spend hours watching redwings eating its berries - until it was cut down!’
(NOT by us, I hasten to add….)
‘I'm worried that I haven't seen signs of and hedgehogs this year …’ - and when he recently put up a swanky new fence on the boundary between us he made sure the contractor cut a ground-level gap so that any hedgehogs could range across our two gardens at least …
On a completely different note he was the keeper of the ‘Wickenby Register’ …. an RAF register of airmen who had flown from RAF Wickenby and other nearby stations.
We mentioned that Bobby's deceased Uncle John, flew in the RAF and had been shot down and taken prisoner during the war ….
He excused himself and within minutes he was back out giving us chapter and verse on Uncle John…. who had flown his fateful mission from Wickenby ….
He was a good and thoughtful neighbour - and we already miss him.
Bobby and Cogs Cordingley
Lending a hand on a produce stall at the Castle Square Farmers Market friends asked us about our forthcoming move …
We described the house and garden….. ‘’A conventional two and a half bedroom semi but with a very long garden and a straight concrete path running on the line of the concrete washing line posts - so the laundry can easily be hung without sidling along on wet grass”
Rob and Margot were standing next in line ….. “It sounds like you're going to be our new neighbours….”
“.... just hope you haven't got a cat!”
I answered honestly:
“No - we haven't got one. We've got two.”
We made a habit of popping a note through their letter box if we were going away ….. some months later Rob called me and said “ You don't need to give us notice when you're going away - I don't think you'll have got to the end of the road before Bruno comes round to say hello …”
Bruno went on to become ‘the community cat ….’ and we even saw Rob give him a stroke!
We were thrilled to find that Rob's gardening style was nature and wildlife friendly …. and his alert awareness of the natural world around us constant, deep and wide-ranging …. and a lovely, chatty, over-the-fence conversation could be guaranteed with him.
‘The black caps are back’
‘Have you seen the mullein caterpillars yet?
‘There used to be a holly there and I’d spend hours watching redwings eating its berries - until it was cut down!’
(NOT by us, I hasten to add….)
‘I'm worried that I haven't seen signs of and hedgehogs this year …’ - and when he recently put up a swanky new fence on the boundary between us he made sure the contractor cut a ground-level gap so that any hedgehogs could range across our two gardens at least …
On a completely different note he was the keeper of the ‘Wickenby Register’ …. an RAF register of airmen who had flown from RAF Wickenby and other nearby stations.
We mentioned that Bobby's deceased Uncle John, flew in the RAF and had been shot down and taken prisoner during the war ….
He excused himself and within minutes he was back out giving us chapter and verse on Uncle John…. who had flown his fateful mission from Wickenby ….
He was a good and thoughtful neighbour - and we already miss him.
Bobby and Cogs Cordingley