Watching the new Ham Glebe rise

One of my regular walks deliberately takes me past Ham Glebe on Church Road so that I can watch the new house taking shape. Works had something of a pause after the foundations were laid in June and then the bright red steel arrived and the house started to take shape.

With the second floor added it is clear how close to the trees that the house will be. A squirrel had certainly noticed that and was noisily throwing nuts on to the first floor as I passed.

Extensions in Burnell Avenue

Burnell Avenue has collected more extensions and refurbishments than most roads and while there are some common themes, such as incorporating the garage and building on top of it, the end result is that all the houses now look different and what was once a row of similar brick houses is now a jumble of shapes and finishes. It is verging on being a mess but I think it has not quite got there yet.

This recent extension and renovation has gone for a more modern look than any of its neighbours and while I generally approve of the design I am a little disappointed in the lack of imagination shown and I think that the blue doors are a colour too far.

Not far away another house is in the early stages of its transformation journey and I will be interested to see how it turns out. Hopefully it will be worth another photo.

T 9 LDU on double-yellows

It would be easy to fill this blog with inconsiderate drivers parking on the double-yellow lines on Ham Parade so that they can shop in Greggs but then that is not really what this blog is about. So it is only when there is something exceptionally bad about the driving or the parking that I include the culprits here.

This time it was the driving. I was crossing the slip-road to get to the Village Supermarket and was still on the slip-road when the van darted into the road and passed unnecessarily close to me and at an unnecessary speed.

Shelley Court after a refresh

Shelley Court in Parkleys was covered in scaffolding for quite a while for what seems to have been mostly a refresh. This was a thorough job which included a detail as small as the name of the block, the letters were replaced and repainted.

The finished result looks very attractive and welcoming. It is easy to see why Parkleys is still a popular place to live.

Shops in Back Lane

I have always felt that the small collection of shops at the top of Back Lane was a little lost as they are separated from the other local shops, notably those on Ashburnham Road, and are on a minor road. They are not every-day shops and by specialising they have managed to keep going despite their odd location.

The road and pavement outside them have been done up in recent years and that helps the shops to look tidy and welcoming.

More whites in Lock Road

I remarked on a cluster of white things in and around Lock Road a few years ago (2009 to be precise) and now they have been joined by a lot more white on the other side of the road. The street sign rather gives it away that this is the junction of Lock Road and Back Lane.

The extension has taken a lot of the garden and the wall continues to block what was the front of the house which used to be open to the street. The whole effect is to make the house untypically private for the area and slightly intimidating. Thanks to the lack of windows it looks more like a prison that a home.

More bad parking on Ham Parade

I have eased off naming and shaming bad parkers but every so often a case comes along that particularly annoys me and I reach for my camera again. This Saturday there were two close together.

DL10 WAO had made no effort to park considerately. There was an empty parking space behind him that he could have reversed into but, instead, he chose to leave it up on the pavement and over the dropped kerb.

BX14 MYL had annoyed me just a few moments earlier by driving aggressively when I was trying to cross the road. I was not surprised at a Range Rover driving, or parking, inconsiderately but I was surprised to see the driver pop into Greggs. At least the driver above had the class to go to Rowley's.

Getting ready for a new house in Ham Street

This building plot on Ham Street has been getting my attention for a few months and I walk past it regularly to check on progress. There has been little and many walks have been wasted in that respect. This time I was rewarded to see a lot of aggregate being delivered on the back of trucks while a machine on site spread their loads.

And this is what it all looked like once they had finished.

A new look for The New Inn

For a quite a while The New Inn only had half a sign and that was in gold on a black background, now everything has changed.

The black bar across the middle of the pub is now white and the thick gold lettering is now slender and black. The theme continues with the other signs such as that by the front door and the one hanging on the right side of the building. It all looks fresh, modern and welcoming, which is just what it says above the door.