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| Dirty Clouds over the Gop Yesterday |
The United States is stealing our weather...they are overly hot and dry...we are overly wet and damp. It's just not fair!
I have not been able to get my hands dirty on bosoms as yet this week and the weeds are high as an elephant's eye!.....oh for a bit of sun and clear skies.
The cottage smells of damp dog at the moment as yet again we got soaked on our morning walk..it's been a f*cking crap summer so far.
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| George, steaming gently |
I walked the dogs in nearby Prestatyn this morning. I had gone down to drop a belated birthday card off for my sister, so she could get it when she arrives back off holiday later today. I left her some flowers on the door step too as a little morale booster, for right in the middle of her break in Spain, her on suite toilet spring a leak and soaked her newly decorated living room with devastating force.
A neighbour saw me leaving the flowers and looked so worried that I felt I needed to explain that no one had, in fact died !....
"Her bog has flooded the house" I called out in way of an explaination
They left looking just as worried!
"Her bog has flooded the house" I called out in way of an explaination
They left looking just as worried!
My sister lives in an affluent leafy suburb....Built in the 1920s, the houses are all surrounded by wide tree lined avenues and have the look of middle England at it's most peaceful. It's a nice place to walk, and it's a nice place to "house watch"...and to be honest, when it's pissing down with rain, it's a slightly cleaner place to walk the dogs!
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| Upper Prestatyn |
I have always found the names that people choose for their houses interesting. For an estate like the one I walked around this morning, there is no obvious need for the naming of the houses, for all the homes have clear numbers unlike most of the older houses here in Trelawnyd who have to have their own names to differentiate them from each other "postally". But name them, people do, and I must admit that I found the list of house names oddly fascinating.
Of course the old stalwarts of "The Willows", "Fairfields", "Kenwoods" and "Chatsworths" figured highly alongside of the more traditional Welsh names of "Bryn Newydd" (New Hill) and "Bryn Teg" ( fine Hill) , but now and again a more "individual" name came into the mix
"Nellandy" might have been owned once by Nellie and Andrew...."Sea Whispers" must have a owner with a bit of a dramatic flair and I'll be buggered if I know just why "Gunther Place" was called "Gunther Place"
The motivation for naming such extensions of self, perhaps can tell a great deal about a person.
"The old Rectory"- which is just around the privet hedge from my Sister ( and which has never in it's life ever had a vicar near it) of course has delusions of grandeur
(see Telegraph cli[pping) while "The Haven" and "Sunnyside" provide a bit of optimism in this uncertain world... and I always liked the name of a house I once saw in Netheredge in Sheffield, as it was called "Witts End".......
My favourite house name comes from a novel and more famously from the filmed version of that novel.... the film is Mrs Miniver and the house name in question is "STARLINGS"....that middle class haven of Englishness where Walter Pidgeon and Greer Garson won their own little parts of the war!
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| Starlings as English as bagels |
Our Cottage is Called Bwthyn-y-llan by the way..... which literally means Church Cottage......a little nicer than it's historic general name of Tan-y-fynwent (below the cemetery!)
What is your house name? I would be interested to know!Funny what you think about when it's pissing down with rain!
Ours has no name, but I used to know a guy who's house was called 'Giblets'.
ReplyDeleteHello John!! It's good to sit this morning and catch up on your blog--We lost our power for 4 days because of the latest storms and I wish I could send some of the warmth and sun in your direction--It has really been brutal!
ReplyDeleteI love the names people pick for their homes and the history that goes with it. I was told by the neighboring farmer when we moved where are now, that it's good luck to name your home, so we did. It became 'Golden Pines' for obvious reasons, the Golden Retrievers and the pine trees--Some of the pine trees just happen to be Scottish Pines, so there's a Scottie connection of sorts too...It's not original or creative, but unfortunately that's who I am.
We live in an anonymous house but we've only been in it 4 months, so a name may come to us. However, I used to ride my horse past a large but a bit shabby place out in the country with a hand painted board hung crookedly by the gate that read Casa Costa Lotta. Used to crack me up every time.
ReplyDeleteOur house doesn't have a name, but our garden is "The Eclectic Eden."
ReplyDeleteours is called Ty Wynne John.....you pass it every day !!
ReplyDeleteIf I could pack up this fracking heat and drought I would air express it to you. You can have all the swelter you want! *pant*
ReplyDeleteMy last house (tiny cottage under lots of trees) was, therefore, called "ShadowHouse". My current home is surrounded by my developing bee-friendly gardens and so is called "Melissa Majora" (home of the bees).
Sorry about your lousy weather. I don't think ANYone is enjoying weather ANYwhere this year. :-(
That's a lovely gesture...sure your sister will appreciate it
ReplyDeleteMy favourite is "Ffometeg". Not as I imagined, a Welsh word, but the made-up name of a house belonging to a newly married young couple.
ReplyDeleteJust reverse the letters...
When we moved into this house three years ago, it had a sign saying "Greensleaves." As I absolutely loathe the tune, I wasted no time in replacing it with a plain "90". In fact we've never had any inclination to name our homes, numbers are just fine.
ReplyDeleteOur house does not have a name John, but the name I vividly remember from my childhood (when I had a phase of collecting names of houses and writing them in a book) is EMOCLEW
ReplyDelete- which (if you have not already figured it out) is Welcome backwards.
Ours is called 'Rose Cottage' but the roses are all in the back garden! It should be called 'Windy Ridge' for obvious reasons (nothing to do with me of course) The weather is crap here too. I'm fed up with it.
ReplyDeleteJo xx
Ps Loved the room make over
When we moved to Trelawnyd 4 years ago, our house was called Glenella - we're one of those houses in the village with no number. Now that smacked a bit of a couple called Glen and Ella, which is a bit naff.... Everyone we met from the village said "oh yes - that's the house with the anchor on the front". We have no idea why or when an anchor was put onto the front of the house (could be a future history project for you John - house names of Trelawnyd), but we thought it was easier to rename it Anchor House and we did it all officially. Now when somebody can't find us because there are no house numbers, we just say, it's called Anchor House and it's the house with the anchor on the front - simple! Love the idea of the house called "Giblets" - I'd like to know the history of that!
ReplyDeleteMy dad lived in a house called Witts End. He moved out when the neighbours drove him to distraction. Maybe he should have heeded the name of the house before he bought it.
ReplyDeleteA would-be ex-mother-in-law lives in Prestatyn. Jones was the name I think.
That was a very nice gesture for your sister. Coming back from one's hols to a loo disaster zone can't be much fun.
I doubt there are many houses in Canada that have a name. My hubbies folks named their farm Tempis Fugit (spelling?). I think I'm going to name our house and start a trend. Any suggestions?
ReplyDeleteWe didn't name the house we helped build. Down the street and around the corner was a farm named "Dare to Dream" but we had a rural route number and later, when 911 became the standard emergency number, a house number.
ReplyDeleteWhere we are now was known as the "Oxton Homestead" as Mr Oxton built the house in 1830, although most people refer to our house by the last name of the people who owned the house just before us. Some older locals still think of it as the house owned by the family who owned it just before them, who had lived here for years.
I am enjoying these coments
ReplyDeletekeep em coming
We have a hand carved sign over the front porch proclaiming our house "The Handbasket."
ReplyDeleteHere in California, and also in Texas, people name their properties, not just their houses. The older properties use the family's last name: Brown Ranch, Davis Ranch, Garamendi Ranch. People who live on "ranchettes," usually ones who have recently moved to the area, are more likely to use physical or idealistic names: River View Ranch, Dos Pinos, Wildflower Farm. When oldtimers refer to property they say: the Grimshaw Place, the Sheldon Home, the Daylor Estate, even though there was never a sign by the road with those names on them.
ReplyDeleteGreystones! So depressing, even more so when it's wet and raining !
ReplyDeleteMy father named his house Greenbank after The Greenbank Club at the University of Liverpool.
ReplyDeleteMy sister and her fiancee bought a house and gutted it, literally all that was standing were the outer walls - no floors at all. During the process they found an old bottle. On it was the word "Swallow". They had romantic ideas of summer swallows and called the house "Swallow Cottage". It was only later when they cleaned the bottle properly that the swallow was part of "swallow one teaspoon".
I've always enjoyed the house names in the UK...real and fictional! such imagination! my mother named our acres in the country "Demesne" (she had delusions of grandeur), Don and I called our place in the country "Rainbow Ranch" (for me rainbows are a symbol of God's promise, for Don he was in the Rainbow Div during WWII and we had recently moved from the wide open spaces of Arizona), my grandparents little house in the woods was called "Holly Hill" (there were actually beautiful berried hollies and a hill)! mostly the older homes in the little community where I grew up were named after the family who lived in them, such as: "The Bingham Place", "The Jones Place"
ReplyDeleteso sorry about your wet and boggy weather...wouldn't it be nice if we could share our weather with you!
Years ago when my son bought his very first house on a new build estate he was as pleased as punch until the new neighbours moved in and called their house "vindaloo" !!
ReplyDeleteWe watched a new house being built in the lane full of old houses where I grew up which was duly named, "Bunny Burrows" !
ReplyDeleteWe have a number but also a stone plaque I found in a flower bed which has WILKES HOUSE inscribed...
Samuel Wilkes was like an early turn of the century property developer but with style, taste & humanity I believe.
Churn Dash, that is so funny, it cheered me up no end !!
ReplyDeleteAs did the patient I saw today who said he got a voucher when he paid for his shopping in Sainsbury's giving him 5p off per litre if you spent £15 on Immodium !!
Two laughs in one day is a good score, I think !!
Dun Roamin.
ReplyDeleteMy farm is called Stargate Farm. and you can certainly send the damn rain over her to Texas. I'll send you all the sun you want!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI've always wanted to call our house Manderley....but I'm too afraid...we'll stick with Cat Crap Towers.
ReplyDeleteJane x
Ours is called Les Bouleaux (The Birches). And there are, in fact, a few around.
ReplyDeleteOurs is called North Lodge as it's the gatehouse at the Northern entrance to Gyrn Castle!
ReplyDeleteA couple we know, have a villa in Spain, and it's called Villa Legover. I thought it sounded quite Spanish, until I realised what it really said. But then again they did make their money from the porn industry. Funny !
ReplyDeleteHopewell House (but, of course we also have a number).
ReplyDeleteThe weather in the Pacific Northwest, which is often just like Wales, finally is starting to turn nice. We have had sunshine for two days in a row!
plufrompdx.blogspot.com
Our's is called Sunnyside Cottage but it's not living up to it's name just lately!
ReplyDeletePeapods! From a random trashy chick lit novel. - it fitted our tiny three up two down mid terrace perfectly cos we're near enough popping out of it!
ReplyDeleteWell, crap. I feel so underprivileged here with my poor little no-name house. However, she said, smiling brightly, my father-in-law made us a sign years ago that says, "Polish Pavilion." Yep. I'll claim that as the official name of our humble abode.
ReplyDeleteMy place is called "Ever Dusty".
ReplyDeleteBecause it is.
Mine is Blue Heron Hill. I'm on a hill on a creek with lots of blue herons around. I want to have a custom sign made in Gaelic. Can anyone send me Blue Heron Hill in Gaelic?
ReplyDeleteblue heron hill in WELSH
ReplyDeleteis
Crëyr glas bryn
hope that helps x
Redbud...for the trees all around the property. They're actually quite weedy and come up everywhere but they have the most beautiful blooms in early spring.
ReplyDeletePrivately though, I call it Sanctuary.
Dxxx