An article I have written…

We all live in a community. No matter how rural and how far away one’s neighbours are. Often far-flung farms are closely knit whilst urban dwellers may often not know the name of the person next door.
Whether we live in detached houses with wrap around gardens, or dense terraces, or multiple flats, our choices and decisions about what we attach to our walls or install in our gardens affects others around us. My Dad always consulted our neighbours about a new fence going up, a low brick wall, and hedge cutting. Thus the hedge cutting often became a joint effort, with cups of tea. My Dad is my plumbline for neighbour relations.
Where I live now, no respect was given to the boundary which is mine. Instead of erecting a fence on their slide, the neighbours put the fence on the boundary line. On the other side, great respect was shown after my arrival, and the fence was placed inside their boundary.
It seems the etiquette around boundaries is dying out, and I am not old.
So earlier this year, my neighbours hung high pitched windchimes eight feet from our mutual fence. There are other places they could have been hung. I have great problems with high pitched sound, as I have a rare disease in my nervous system. It is so rare that it is not researched. The windchimes cause me pain and muscle tension.
My neighbours, who are tenants claim I harassed them, but in fact I knocked at their door at two different times of day before resorting to posting a note, with my mobile number. They ignored this and then trespassed in my garden. Meanwhile, they were causing nuisance by hooking their back gates open, preventing ease of access for me and my friends, and work men.
Quay Living, their letting agent, doesn’t care about any of this and will not ask my neighbours to move the windchimes. The council has exhausted it’s powers in asking them to move them, and my neighbours refuse mediation.
In the summer, I could hear the chimes all over my house as I had many windows open due to the heat. It’s got so bad that I scream with pain when I step into my garden. I can no longer enjoy my garden.
I have started a petition asking the Secretary of State for the Environment to introduce a law requiring householders to consult their neighbours about noise-making installations,or visual disturbance. Someone I care about has had a flag hung beside her bay window, and it disturbs her constantly and obscures her view.
Please take a couple of minutes to sign this petition. One day it may be you with an intolerable noise or visual disress, or your elderly relative.

Sign the PetitionMake Neighbours consult on what they put in their garden that makes noise/visual distress

Chrissie Morris Brady

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A happy morning, after anxiety…

Having needed to be nebulised yesterday, I did not get a lot of sleep as I was so wired. Strung out as those who use drugs for recreational purposes might say.

Sam came, she is helping me finish the reducing, recycling and repurposing that I started with such gusto in January. I really impressed myself. My bed is pulled away from the wall, so I’m having to reach back for my drinks, lamp etc, but I’m just so happy to see progress that it doesn’t bother me at all. I’m so grateful for Sam, she is a treasure found unexpectedly, serendipity, and I love her to bits. She accommodates my sudden request to put moisturising lotion on my legs and arms, she will quickly fill my water bottle for me, and move this to there and that to here.

This enabled me to fill the bird feeder before I went for some groceries. I came home to find the garden filled with birds. I’m thrilled.

I have realised I cannot make my neighbours who have caused so much nuisance by fixing their gates open, by means of criminal damage, go away, and in order to keep my breathing going well I must simply tune them out. My chest got tight in the garden yesterday but improved as I went toward the doctor’s and so I returned home to finish my planting only to get tight again because of the noise suddenly coming from the neighbours’ garden. I cannot let this affect my health. I need to make myself oblivious to them and remain calm if their gates impinge on my freedom to use my own.

Any ideas on how to do this? Input please… I’ve always been aware of my surroundings . I’m not someone who lives in their little own world…so ideas please.