All roads lead to...

Caught up with Grandpa and David today. Yes they had a visit a few weeks ago from 'the man' telling them that some of the property will have road over the top of it in a few years time. It seems like the road will run somewhere right along the back of the property, so they will lose from 35m to maybe 120m along the back, depending on the exact final alignment. Grandpa thinks it works out to be about 3 or 4 acres. He's not particularly bothered about it, just wants to make sure that he gets compensated for the loss of the land, plus the value of the lease of that area, plus for the fact that he will no longer be able to subdivide (since he's only allowed to subdivide in 10 acre lots, and he has 20 now, so when a bit is taken out, he won't be able to split it up). The people who live almost directly behind him on the end of Bain Road will be losing their house, so I guess he is just glad that's not happening. David said there are a total of 49 houses that will be lost, which is not really so bad given the scale of the project. I do shudder a bit to think of how much good farming land will be lost, just for the evil car. It's not like they can just pick up and farm further north...
Both Grandpa and David are well - David had to head to work, but we stayed and chatted to Grandpa for a while, Hannah very pleased there were white chocolate frogs to be had, Sophie excited by licking the cream out of several biscuits. Grandpa had surgery a couple of weeks ago on his wrists, sounds like it was carpal tunnel problems, not necessarily arthritis related. He started having problems moving his hands about a month ago, went to see the doctor and then got into hospital pretty quickly after that. He's very happy with the way his hands are now.

As I blog I keep hearing a low rumbling sound - I thought it was something in the computer, but I've finally worked out it's Rufus snoring just outside the window! He seems quite happy here - is very kindly using only one corner of the garden as his toilet, and otherwise being his usual placid self. The cat has wised up to how slow and deaf he is, and is even brave enough to drink out of his waterbowl on occasion!