Just back from visiting Nanny's house and found all the garden at the front has been dug up, and a modern design put in it's place. Some of the garden at the back has been fenced off, and now the foundations of a house are beginning to appear. I thought I was going to be broken hearted at the desecration of my childhood home, but it actually looks really nice. The gossip mill in the village is going into overdrive and people who don't even know what the house looks like have an opinion on whether it is right that someone should be having a house built in their garden and doesn't it change the look of the village, despite the fact there is a large new estate and several new executive homes that have sprung up in various locations. The real issue people have is that Mum is not a local (after all she has only lived there for 25 years) so really she shouldn't be able to do that sort of thing. The joy of living in a village is every one knowing your business, except most people that live there have moved down from London and drive large cars and have no idea who their neighbours are, they just like to join the parish council which gives them some power and an instant VIP pass into the community, and talk in very loud voices in the local pub, while the people who have lived there forever retreat further into the corner and glower into their cider.