A day’s difference

The blue sky was blocked out by grey clouds today and the Hop Blossom looked very different.

What a difference a day makes

Opposite the Hop Blossom are Myrtle Cottages. They were built in 1864. I know because it’s painted on the middle cottage of the block. They look quite sweet and suitably Victorian but I can’t help but wonder why the builder felt the need to build the big brick wall around them. It limits the extent of anything remotely like a garden at the front. It must make the houses very dark as well.

There’s no back garden, the back of the cottages being the back of the properties. I can only assume the wall post-dates the cottages and was erected due to some other building at the end of Lion and Lamb Yard. Perhaps it protected the residents from some awful eyesore or maybe it protected the eyesore from the residents of Myrtle Cottages.

These days, they look a bit like a remnant of Olde Farnham with a big Scout Hall tacked on one end and a small but modern office building and car park across the road. Maybe the brick wall is some sort of Time Stasis Unit which keeps the actual cottages in 1864.

I’ve searched for information about them but haven’t had any luck.

Myrtle Cottages

Speaking of changing Farnham, I noticed the other day that the Colony in Castle Street has closed. This was our only Chinese restaurant and, until recently, served very good food. Nicktor and I would often order from them for Nicktor Nights as they used to do a very efficient takeaway service. The last time Mirinda and I had food from them, it wasn’t very good. We decided not to use them any more.

Next door to the Colony (it’s the same building) was a dress shop called Liberty but was only on the ground floor, the top floor being the restaurant. Liberty closed a while ago.

Today, while walking by the building, I noticed a yellow Planning Application taped to the window. Naturally, I looked it up when I returned home. The owner is going to make internal changes, rebuild an extension at the back and make general cosmetic changes. It is going to be a new restaurant. Hopefully, Chinese but only time will tell.

The building is Grade Listed so there can’t be a lot (if any) external changes. This is what it looks like at the moment:

The Colony

Back at home, the changes continue in the garden. I replanted the yarrow in the Crazy Bed and lined the base of the bird bath with the lungwort from the Nursery Bed which now resembles the leftovers from a bombing raid. This will very soon be a wildflower meadow with an anti-Emma fence around it.

Chris the Gardener popped in at 2pm to measure up for the new lawn to replace the only grassy area left in the garden. Hopefully it’ll be lawn soon. At the moment it’s more moss than grass and the lumps are almost mole size – moles are not responsible, it’s more my lousy gardening skills. Chris is going to come round next week to give it a major makeover. Hopefully, we’ll have a lawn for the Puppy’s Barbeque we’re (sort of) planning.

The only down side is that in doing it, all trace of the Wendy House will vanish and with that, the back garden will have completely changed from when we originally bought the house. Actually, that’s not entirely true because the sheds right at the back are leftovers and will remain for a while…though plans are afoot…