Hiding at Hidecote

Janet wanted to visit the gardens at National Trust Hidecote, and so we drove up this morning. The gardens there were, to my uncultured mind, as heat ravaged as Janet's own, but we walked between pockets of shade and enjoyed what was there.

Just outside the entrance, an MG owners club had mounted an informal picnic, and I was taken with this 1948 MG TC Midget. MG's are still a thing, albeit I think the Marque is now owned by the Chinese.

We came home to a water bill that made my eyes water (unmetered tears, thankfully). I'm assuming we almost doubled our six monthly consumption because of the building work, but perhaps I need to be quicker in the shower...

In other news the local authority have written to advise they are proposing to kill off one of our well used public rights of way; one which crosses the main railway line. 

This has been coming for some time, and we did ask them to consider a footway tunnel under the embankment. Network Rail decided it would require a "disproportionate investment given the limited number of pedestrians using the crossing" - currently an average of twenty two per day and expected to increase sharply due to ongoing developments. 

I will be questioning if they feel it likely as many as twenty two people will use the under construction village railway station every day, considering it is currently expected to cost > £40Million. I certainly don't.