Roof work in Ham Street

I live in the hope that a lot of scaffolding and sheeting means that something exciting is happening inside. I am often wrong in this but I like the tension of waiting to see the end result.

Then and now: 18 Mariner Gardens

This is the first in a short collection of then and now photographs.

Several readers of this blog are people who used to live locally and they tell me that they like to see pictures of the places they know as they are now. One of these said:

My dad, Kenneth Kirchen, had to come to start work in Feltham in March 1967, while my sister and I stayed back in California to finish our school year. So when he found a house to rent in Ham, he took photos and sent them to us so we could see where we would be living. We moved to England in June 1967 and lived at 18 Mariner Gardens.  

It has taken me quite a while to get a "now" photograph of the same houses and even then I was not able to take one from the same spot because there are always cars (and vans) parked either obscuring the view or where I want to stand.

Nice job

It has taken over a year but the extension of this house in Ham Farm Road has finished, and very nice it looks too. The new parts fit in so well with the old ones that it does not look as though it has been extended, which is a good thing.

The front garden is a little bare but I dare say that will come soon and in the meantime the absence of vegetation provides a nice uninterrupted view of the house.

Spring flowers on Ham Village Green

Ham Village Green is a lovely harbinger of Spring with its swathes of bulbs. This is the view from Ham Street looking across the Green towards Ham Close, and a pretty view it is too. And it will be even better when the trees have grown to maturity.

More pavement work

The section of pavement on the corner of Ham Gate Avenue and Upper Ham Road has been worked on a few times since I started this blog and the surface there was very good, or so I thought, but there must be some reason why it is all being dug up again.

Hopefully the reason for the work will be clear once it has finished and the pavement will be even better than it was before.

New porch and windows in Dysart Avenue

Dysart Avenue has been a relatively quiet road for home improvements in recent years and while I have noticed somethings going on none of there has been interesting enough for me to post it.

This is not a particularly large project either but I have posted it because Dysart Avenue deserves some attention and I find this one interesting as they have kept almost all of the original house but added modern windows and a modern front door.

20 mph

Several 20 mph signs have appeared on local roads, these are on Upper Ham Road. Not many people paid much attention to the previous 30 mph limit that applied there and I do not expect the new signs to make any noticeable difference to traffic speeds.

CK60 DZE upsets everyone

Another driver who has shown no interest in anyone else whatsoever. The car is parked across a dropped kerb to frustrate pedestrians and away from the kerb to frustrate drivers trying to make the tight turn into the slip road.

EJ17 GUD sits on the pavement

Surely it is not too much to ask that cars do not park on the pavement like this? The angle of the car suggests that the driver was not interest in, or not capable of, parking correctly and leaving the car on the pavement shows no regard for anyone else.