Living in the sticks

Fens, on a much larger scale. I moved from Essex (pretty much all concrete now) to this island of green, 20 years ago. There's no comparison. When I go back to visit my family (alternate years) I still give a sigh of relief when I get off the ferry in this part of the Irish Sea on return.

 

League of Gentlemen

 

The thing that surprised me the most moving to the country, after living all my life in towns, was the night. No street lighting and it's VERY dark. With no moon, you can't see a hand in front of your face! The dog had to be walked with torch in hand. It was quite eerie in the summer with the windows open. You could hear cows munching the other side of the fence but you couldn't see them. The stars look great though.

 

This is what I can hear now, it sure beats the roar of the M25 which is what I used to hear!!!

Val

 

I would agree with that. The Wye Valley, you are lucky and one of the areas I'll be looking at.

 

It's like that in the tiny Welsh village where we sometimes stay. If you forget to take a torch, you don't make it home from the pub!!

 

Wales is well dark ive got lost in the dark a few times

 

Yeah yeah forgot your torch excuse :-)

Jack McH

 

Where we used to live there was a little stream that ran right along the side of the lane. If you forgot your torch, it was quite possible to fall in the stream on the way home from the pub.

 

That would make good viewing

 

Ah, but you wouldn't be able to, it's dark isn't it!

 

Nobody's mentioned power outages in the 'sticks'. We get several every year, once getting 10. Been without power for an hour now, working on laptop battery power + mobile broadband dongle. So much for "It'll be fixed in 15 mins".

EDIT: Normal service has been resumed so no need to get my generator out. Managed to stop a neighbour from heading off to buy a new kettle just in time. Our old water mains regularly bust with water cuts also several times a year. Once we were on bottled water supplies when it took a week to fix + a few more days to cleanse.

 

Oh yes. We get some every year. Usually in the winter. We didn't get that problem so much in rural U.K though. Another thought I've just remembered, (In the U.K) You pay the same amount for "services" that those in the town do. But you don't get some of them. i.e sewerage, street lighting etc.