UNDER ATTACK AGAIN

Today was always going to be busy as we had guests for dinner tonight, had I realised just how busy I would not have slept a wink last night.
Across the road from our cottage is a beautiful large house which was until recently the home of a member of the House of Lords. The house was sold recently and we were led to believe that the massive renovations that have been taking place for the past five months were being done to make the place fit for a millionaires daughter and her son to live in.
As the work continued we all began to wonder about some of the new features being added to the house. Some how things just did not fit.,so this morning I decided to play Sherlock Holmes and began an investigation that led to some startling disclosures and which has the local community up in arms.
I will not bore you with all the details of my investigation but with a little luck and a lot of ferreting I discovered that the place is to be turned into an hotel complete with conference suit and with the extensive gardens to be used for functions such as weddings, to be held in a large marque on the lawn. The noise from such events will be deafening and then comes the question of where they will park as the lane is very narrow and even the people who live here have difficulty finding parking space at times.
We and all the other locals had seen the plans for the renovation of the house but nowhere on those plans was mention made of an hotel, Yet they are advertising on the internet on a number of sites as opening for business soon.
“That is against the law.! I hear you cry, well yes it is unless ,like the people who have bought the house you are a multimillionaire. Needless to say, the local town planning department have been informed and we await their reply with interest.

Finding and afterwards dealing with this information took a couple of hours but I would still have had plenty of time had not a further bombshell been delivered by the secretary of our conservation society. I had just begun my preparations for dinner which included the making of a lemon drizzle cake when the telephone rang and it was.”Did I know that a children's playground was to be built in the churchyard at the rear of our cottage.” The short answer to which was. “No.”
You may remember my mentioning past battles over the fate of this lovely old graveyard and there is an ongoing survey of the whole area as a wildlife habitat. This news came as a real shock, so I went back to the computer and wrote another batch of letters to the relevant people. This took ages and by the time I had finished I was running late. Any Idea I had of baking a cake was scouted and I got on with roasting the beef, preparing a huge batch of roast potatoes and vegetables. While the meat was cooking I hared off to the local shop for some iced cream, I hated to do it but needs must when the devil drives!
Dinner went well at least, the guests were on time and the food was well received, even the shame making iced cream.

I returned to my computer to discover that my mail box was heaving with correspondence most of which I intent to shelve until tomorrow.
What a week. I have people in my garden felling trees illegally, then the new hotel with no planning permission at the front of the cottage and a playground to be built at the rear. All I need now is to discover that my next door neighbour is to open a house of ill repute and we shall have as it were “The Full Monty.”
One thing that is explained by all of this however is the sudden need for a car park in this neck of the woods, and now we know why the trees had to go.
We are under siege and we are fighting , all of us. We are standing by to repel boarders, let us hope that for once might is not right.