Cooking for one (Mark Three)

Early lunch. A tasty dish of sausages & mash with mashed swede and gravy. Very tasty. Portion controlled, it's so difficult looking at food on a plate and thinking "wish you were 2x the size".... but that's life.

In the last two days I've packed away 6 sausage rolls and 250g of choccies, so I can't be greedy all the time!

pineapple wrote: »

I actually do have a right of way across my garden but it is solely for the use of the occupiers of the house that I back onto. Fortunately they have hardly ever had reason to use it. But after moving in I found that the world and his wife were passing through. It turned out that the one day a week village post office operates from the house in question and some residents above me were taking a shortcut to collect their pensions. Plus the neighbour cooks for the monthly Soup and Sweet at the village hall and people were bringing and collecting spare dishes etc. My cottage had been unoccupied for years so people had got used to doing it.
A quick telephone call to the solicitor confirmed that the right of way was solely for the occupants and only in connection with the use of their home as a private residence. Was advised to inform everyone that it was private though I could let them through on an 'as and when' permission basis. Otherwise I risked it becoming a general right of way.
I had to have 'the conversation' with so many village stalwarts - including the Chair of the Parish council who would send his daughter to collect his pension. Even the post office was not allowed through on it's weekly visits next door. To avoid mixed messages, I went for zero tolerance. It took some time for the message to get out, so for a while I had to dash out like a mad woman and apprehend anyone passing through. :eek:
I too was concerned how I would look. Can you imagine - what a way for the village newbie to start. :rotfl:

No ROW in my garden - but I'd read all the same sort of stuff you've obviously read about it being risky to let other people trespass in my garden like they were doing right, left and centre. I also went for zero tolerance and wished they hadn't put the "newbie" in that position like that. In my case - I could see that stuff I was putting in my garden would also land up being damaged or moved. In fact there was a bit of damage to my stuff before I managed to stop the shenanigans.

I know exactly where you're coming from on that one.:cool:

pineapple wrote: »

.... To avoid mixed messages, I went for zero tolerance....

It took some time for the message to get out, so for a while I had to dash out like a mad woman and apprehend anyone passing through.
I too was concerned how I would look. Can you imagine - what a way for the village newbie to start.

This is the trouble, you DO have to go for zero tolerance else you get "creep" again and you're back where you started.

One neighbour has to drag their bin out of their gate, over my parking turning spot (I own freehold) and over 3 more freehold strips of land, round to the front of their house. It'd be really easy if they could just leave it outside their gate, just 8' from where mine is .... but rules is rules. That is MY land - and that is not their "Council designated bin pick up spot" (which the Council have a map of if you do it wrong).

If you put your bin in the wrong spot the binmen write to everybody ... and if I let one do it others might think "that's neat if we all put them there in one spot" - and if I allowed one neighbour to do it they might then start to do other things in that space and treat it "as their own" ...and, over time, could be a nuisance.

There are four neighbours here who are supposed to take their bins out their back gate, to line up side by side on the corner - and then take into their gardens the same day. The problem is there are 3 bins apiece and they mostly leave them out the back - and the binmen turn up and can't easily get them down the (bin-width wide walk strip) to the bin wagon as there are two cars parked (legally/correctly) alongside, so the binmen run the risk of scraping cars. So we all got a letter telling us all "you're not putting your bins out correctly, or away on time...." which is annoying when it's not everybody, but four.... but they did provide a nifty map. However, since then, of those four houses, 3 have now changed residents so they're probably back to square 1.

So, unfortunately, until you've got a solid voice and are sure of individuals you can't just "live and let live" as you can create future problems for yourself.

I have always made my position perfectly clear on every occasion I witnessed a breach and, over time, these lessened... but with ever-changing neighbours and behaviours there's always something else to try to spot and get on top of.... and it's not easy, but it must be done else you do get walked over.

I bought a PIR doorbell I've been playing around with, but it has to be outside and isn't weather proof...I've put it in a few spots to try, but it's often too windy. Earlier today I thought I'd cut the bottom off a 1 pint milk bottle and see if it fits in that, for a bit of wind protection/disguise/weather proofing... just placed that in its first spot to see if that's a winner or another idea that needs further work.

Yesterday I happened to be plating up my dinner when I saw the little imp... I'm rarely in there, so the PIR will alert me to anything that moves into my space, theoretically, so I can go out and give it "OI!!"