Thank goodness.... General Chat

There is a huge field alongside where I take the dogs - to get to it, though, you have to wade through a shallow river and negotiate a steep bank each side. So, few owners ever bother to go there, but of course that doesn't stop the dogs. It is teeming with rabbits and dogs love it (one woman used to bring a book to occupy herself while waiting for her dog to come back!) Gertie used to love it, though luckily the rabbits had the sense to stay underground when they saw a lurcher coming over.

When she died, we thought it would be the ideal place to scatter her ashes, as she loved it so much. Somehow, though, I kept putting it off. And thank goodness I did - they've just started to build a housing estate there!

I don't know what will happen to the poor rabbits - they'll have to pack their bags and go. Watership Down all over again.

It's ages since I've heard that - I really enjoyed it!

Thank you!

what a shame, their building everywhere now. At the rate its going near me my small market town will reach the surrounding towns and we wont know where one starts and the other finishes

Yes - there's no easy answer. People have to have somewhere to live, but once green spaces are gone they've gone forever.

There was a lot of protest here when they decided to extend the Spa Trail a couple of miles by laying a wide hard path in place of the existing narrow muddy footpath. The idea was that it would enable access to wheelchair users. I rather liked it as it was, but could see the wheelchair access point was a very valid one. They started work, and seemed to be getting along very quickly, so I bought myself a bike as once it was finished I would have a traffic-free 12 mile track yards from my doorstep. Then it came to a halt for a year because of protests. In the end, the path was built and although it's wider than the original footpath I can't see that it's had any impact on wildlife at all as it hasn't encroached on the hedgerows. The only incredibly stupid thing they did was to have plans publicly available which showed exactly where there was a badger sett.

No - not a single one!

That's a pity - it's so much nicer to live in a town with its own individuality and surrounded by green fields.

Janet, as a permanent chair user I am all in favour of chair-friendly places - even though it is the law now here that all public buildings must be chair-accessible I still cannot get into my bank and other places because of steps - even one step is too much.

The thought of being able to go on a trail like the one you describe is just a dream.

Regarding the loss of green fields because of the need for more and more and yet more housing - when I first came to Israel and lived in town there were just 55,000 inhabitants and the amount of open green space was a sheer delight. There was not even a supermarket and oh the excitement when the first [small] one was built.

Now? Block after apartment block have been and still are being built - and not just the small blocks like the four-storey block in which I bought my apartment, each one having its own, albeit small, front garden with a table/bench so we could sit outside. These are tall blocks with the entry from the pavement itself.

When I go to the Vet, just at the end of the road where I lived, I do not know where on earth I am on the way until we get there. That little road where the surgery is has not changed.

It might be, well it is at times, inconvenient to live on this Moshav with just one little shop and nothing else, especially if you do not have a car, but there are always taxis which will come out from town and at least it is peaceful and will never be built up.

You'd love the trail Malka. It's a disused railway track, so very flat and wheelchair-friendly. Along the edge are wild flowers and trees - ever changing of course - and each side there are fields and woods. There are horses in some fields, Highland Cattle in some (oh the babies!) and sheep. If you're lucky a munkjac deer might pop up, or a snake might scuttle across the path in front of you (though I know some people might not think that lucky, but I'm always pleased to see them!). I use it for dog walking, running, and cycling.

It's a shame when tall apartment blocks dominate the landscape - they've no charm or personality like the one you live in. Have you ever seen the film Batteries Not Included?

No - never seen that movie and I prefer not to see snakes!

I am just so lucky that I first found a tiny place to rent on this Moshav as they are few and far between as any empty place usually goes to younger family members. And I now live in an ancient but, for me, perfect little detached bungalow with a contract for life with rent that will never be increased. It is more Home than any place I have ever lived in in my life.

But I can see towards town from my back windows - only in the distance though I cannot see any buildings just the sign from one of the new [to me] shopping centres but waaay past our fields and across the main N/S road and that is way off - but it is just possible to see that there is light pollution thataway whereas here the skies are so clear with no light pollution whatsoever.

I will leave here when I am carried out feet first, and will be laid to rest in the burial ground belonging to and adjacent to the Moshav.

Somehow it is a rather comforting feeling.