Where I live-Inthemud

Halfway down the road
Is a road where I live:
There isn't any other road quite like it.
I'm not at the bottom,
I'm not at the top:
So this is the place where I always stop.

Halfway up the road
Isn't up, and isn't down.
It isn't in the village, it isn't in the town:
And all sorts of funny thoughts
Run round my head:
"It isn't really anywhere! It's somewhere else instead"

Apologies to AA Milne.....

That is rather how I feel about where we live.
We are a collection of houses scattered in a small hamlet on the surrey/Sussex border. Once many years ago this was a thriving village, with a petrol station garage, a Post office with shop, a Bakers ,a Blacksmith and a small school but none of these exist anymore , just a few clues the the past hertiage in the names of houses "The Old Post Office", "The Old Smithy". There is just one place left where the locals can meet The Pub, which is very old and very quaint, goes back to 1500's, and has kept many of it's original features, there is no proper bar, just a stable door , over which one orderes drinks! The pub is very popular with walkers as it is in the midst of a network of Footpaths.


The road we live on, is a country lane, it is set between two major roads, our cottage is about half way from either direction. It can be a busy road especially during the rush hour as people use it to cut through from one main road to the next instaed of going the long way round! Though just recently we did get our 40 mile an hour limit, after almost 10 years of fighting for it. Such a relief and it is slowing traffic down a bit, though not totally. There are no paths, no street lighting, so it can bit rather dangerous taking the dogs out that way.


But go out behind the cottage and immediately I am in fields and woodlands. I've mentioned before the Game keeper who loves to hunt and his strange habits with his trophy heads so I won't say anymore about that, just to say he still does it!
I can walk for ages and not see the road. This is why I love where I live, I love seeing the wildlife, the deer, foxes, rabbits, pheasants,the heron,ducks and moorhens in the pond in the corner of the field, my friendly barn owl, whom I often see first thing in the morning scanning the meadow for prey. I love the plant life too, this time of year there are clusters of primroses, soon there will be carpets of bluebells and wood anenomes.




The road gets very muddy, the paths through the wood and meadows get very muddy, which is why I gave myself the name "Inthemud", because on the first occasion that I joined "that" place and had to think of a user name, we'd just come back froma very muddy walk and Beth was covered in mud, so I thought of "Stuck in the mud" but the system wouldn't allow it all, so Inthemud is what I ended up with, though I answer to "Muddie"!


Our nearest shop is just over a mile away at the petrol station and our nearest village is about 2 miles away in the opposite direction, this is where the real community is, the Co Op with the Post office,the lovely farm shop selling local fresh fruit and vegetables as well as a range of delectable foods and chocolates, the Health centre and pharmacy, the primary school where Lucy attends and the Church which plays a big part in my life. There is also a big Village Hall and Social Club and Playing fields with Football pitches and Tennis Courts. Within this village are all manner of groups and societies , there's the "Wives", "The Friendly Club", The horticultural Society,WI, to name but a few, I'm not a member of any of these as I work full time and mostly meetings are in the day time.


If I need a big supermarket I only have to travel about 6-8 miles in any direction and I can find most of the major retailers.
Our nearest town is Horsham, which is one of the reasons we moved out this way, we would drive out to Horsham on a Sunday and so liked the area that we wanted to live close by. So we spent years searching for the right house , visiting Horsham nearly every month till at last we found our ideal home. We choose this particular cottage because it had a huge drive way for Stan's cars and no immediate neighbours.I won't mention Stan's car habit again as it is rather a sore point!

In the other direction is a village which fames itself on being England's Largest Village: Cranleigh, a very pretty place with all the advantages of a town but it is classed as a village!

I believe we have the best of both worlds where we live, we are surrounded by beautiful countryside, yet we're are only a short drive from all the amenities that we need, though the children would beg to differ, saying they wished we didn't live in the back and beyonds because they cannot get to see there friends without asking to be taken! So "Mum's Taxi" gets plenty of use!


Our home was a pair of old Woodcutters cottages, nestling in beside a 26 acre wood, parts of it date back to the mid 17th C, but due to numerous additions over the years it is not original enough to be listed, which is good really. The early inhabitants must have been very short in stature, as the beamed ceilings are very low. In room room I call my study which doubles as a Dining room and guest room the ceiling has been raised, but the door is still very short, so many visitors go home with bumped and bruised heads, even though I remind them continually "Mind your head!" The cottage is full of character and we have a woodburning stove, which creates layers of dust throughout, I'm afraid I cannot keep up with the dusting and only do it periodically, when I can no only see the TV screen! We too have an abundance of spiders and cobwebs, they cling to the beams and are so hard to get rid of, so we just agree to live in harmony together, they do keep the fly population down to a minimum. I much prefer spiders to flies!


Along side our family and animals residing in the cottage we also have visitations from spirits from previous times. An old lady is occasionally seen wandering the garden or standing in the Dining room, she scared Beth,the dog, one christmas , her hackles rose and she wouldn't go into the room for ages. Also my middle daughter has regular visits from a small girl, who comes and just sits in the chair in her bedroom and watches her, she can be mischievious and often hides things I need, I'll go to the place I know I last saw the item, it won't be there, I'll search high and low and not find it, then the next day I'll look again and there it will be exactely where it should have been before!! We all jog along together sharing the house past, present and future, I wouldn't have it any other way!