I walked up the lane close to home last Saturday morning, the wind was freezing, blowing across the open fields from the West.
I saw three people walking, one dog, three people cycling - two normal and one in lycra! and .........
Dandelions
Jack -by -the -hedge
White dead nettle
An animal track across the field - maybe fox but probably deer
Pink blossom in the distance
Hawthorn just coming into leaf
Blackthorn blossom finishing
That dot is a Buzzard circling- need a better camera for something so high. There were skylarks too - no chance of taking their photographs at all
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And all the time the sprayer was going up and down the field - probably with weedkiller- luckily the wind was taking the spray away from where I was walking or I would have needed a mask. The fields have wheat or possibly barley growing well, no sugar beet or oil seed rape this year.
View over the village. There will soon be 70 more homes in the area that's cleared, in front of the other houses. Who will buy them is the question. 50% of the houses built two years ago at the other end of the village are still empty. You just need £500,000+ to buy one!
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Why they keep building houses they cannot sell? I don't understand...
ReplyDeleteExactly! Could there be some kind of subsidy or incentive involved?
Delete300 new houses in the next village - no extra facilities and one site has gone bankrupt half built and a housing association are buying the few that are finished and then the rest will stay a mess of half built until someone buys the site
DeleteCrazy to built such expensive houses. It's starter homes people need . . . An immense of money must have been spent building new homes on the way into town here. The sloping field had immense amounts of soil added at the top to level it, this held in place by a vast and deep wall. . . then more houses below. Heaven knows what these will be marketed at.
ReplyDeleteEven the smaller semis on the site aren't selling - they were £300,000!
DeleteBovey Belle is right. Small affordable houses are what is needed...here too.
DeleteIt is greed of course but there is even a limit to how much people will pay at the top end of the market. But Sue you had a good walk noting how spring is evolving, red dead nettle is a good bee flower.
ReplyDeleteIt was freezing up the lane but slowly slowly things are appearing
DeleteLovely walk. our blackthorn hedges are just coming into flower here. All that pesticide spray is damaging, both to the country side, then our health as we eat foods coated with pesticides. It is the reason I dont mind paying extra for organic food and believe strongly in more natural ways of farming.
ReplyDeleteThere was more Hawthorn green in the next village - the lane is a cold spot
DeleteWe have the same thing here in Cornwall with expensive homes. Some 'executive' homes have been build speculatively and are now being auctioned because the developers have gone bust without finishing them. They built the wrong homes - too big and too expensive, in the wrong locations - overlooking the other expensive homes. It turns out we weren't the only ones to look at the details and think that if we were paying that much we would expect a better outlook than the garage/side wall of the next house.
ReplyDeleteIt seems madness. Meanwhile, the only starter homes are on main roads. It's well known that vehicle pollution is bad for all of us, and particularly for children with developing brains etc. It should be illegal for starter homes and children's playgrounds to be alongside main roads.
Recently plans appeared for where another 100 houses might be built in the village as well as the 70 to be started this year!
DeleteA development in the next village to ours makes us laugh every time we go past it. There are about 5 large stone 'executive' houses backing onto fields, but there is just an access road at the front dividing them from the miniscule back gardens of a terraced row of small, brick-built starter homes fronting onto the main street. I can only assume that they only got planning permission by agreeing to include affordable housing in their plan for this former farm yard. I think the starter homes will be sold quickly, as they are in short supply, but will the 'executive' crowd really want their outlook to be washing lines and wheelie bins? Crazy!
DeleteIt is disgraceful so many houses are being built that are not affordable. In a small village near us 30 houses have been built, very large and "luxury" homes but none have sold because the builders stupidly built them all with gas central heating and the village has no mains gas! It beggars belief. They have stayed empty for over a year and the builders have gone bankrupt. There is talk a housing association is going to take them over but who knows? Madness. Regards Sue H
ReplyDeleteThat gas thing is the strangest thing I've heard about new builds - mad! Everything being built here are all ground source or air source heat pumps
DeleteI meant to say before that I really like your header. It's such a delight to see long-tailed tits.
ReplyDeleteNew houses are springing up all over the place, mostly beyond the reach of people trying to get on the property ladder. Little thought is given to the infrastructure that is needed, though there are always 'plans' which rarely seem to come to fruition once building permission has been granted.
The photo is from last year, I've only seen two at a time here this year
DeleteOh my goodness, it’s an all too familiar tale isn’t it - small villages expanding at such an alarming rate and very few folk can afford the houses, also so often, local facilities don’t match the growing population. The gas story above beggars belief.
ReplyDeleteAlison in Devon x
Every village has to have new homes - even if no one wants to live in them - a really crazy world
DeleteIsn't it funny how they spray the fields in hazmat suits and people eat it.....
ReplyDeleteNot sure they have Hazmat suits!
DeleteYour village is lovely -- I hope the new houses fit in and it doesn't disturb the energy of the village as it is now. Dandelions already -- definitely a sure sign that spring is there to stay. We still have a bit of a wait -- but hopefully, not too long! Thanks for your visit today. I always appreciate your comments and the time it takes to stop by!
ReplyDeleteIt's lack of facilities that is the problem, where is the water for all these new homes going to come from and drainage can be another problem
DeleteIt's so nice to see all of the blossoms - we don't have as much here yet.
ReplyDeleteJust 5 days on from my photos and a wee bit of warmth and the hawthorn is leafing up well
DeleteYour green growing fields are beautiful, and the flowering trees of Spring are always a welcome event. My dogwood and magnolia trees show buds only.
ReplyDelete70 houses will fill the field. US has a housing shortage too. Construction is slow and not many new homes are being built. The two new construction homes I am aware of are 4–5-bedroom homes with all the bells and whistles and they are not selling.
My magnolias are starting to lose all their petals - one chilly night does it - sadly
DeleteThe government gave every council instructions to allow for all this building to fill the quotas that they promised. But there is no point in building what won't sell is there. Far better to build one and two bed properties. One building company went bust halfway through an estate build in our town a couple of years ago, and it has taken until now for someone else to step in and finish the houses. What they don't seem to realise is that with all the hundreds of new houses that have gone up, we still only have one primary school, one secondary school and one doctors practice. I love that you noticed so much on your walk, nature is really waking up now isn't she.
ReplyDeleteThe estate started in the next village was left with many houses half tiled when the builder went bankrupt. I should think they are pretty wet inside by now.
DeleteThanks for sharing your spring walk. Our town is suffering lack of schools and GP facilities due to the ridiculous number of new houses. Catriona
ReplyDeleteLovely photos. Really representative of the Suffolk countryside. Thanks
ReplyDelete