Fence celebrations

To celebrate the completion of our fence between our houses, our neighbours, Bob and Elaine decided to mark the occasion with a party that coincided with the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. The fence was a superb structure of stained wooden planks 2 metres high and 50 metres long. It spanned our long drive and separated our two house where we previously had a mixed hedge of conifers, ivy and laurel. Unfurtunately, the hedge died a death and had to be removed and by March there was nothing to separate our two houses. Bob worked on it throughout the month of May in adverse weather conditions from early morn to dusk to complete it by June. It was to be a long and slow process because of the heavy downpours of torrential rain that we experienced in May. May was the wettest month in a long time and whenever there was any small bit of sunshine, Bob would be seen out there with his hammer and measuring level trying to put up a few planks; whilst Elaine helped by staining the wooded planks on the other side. Finally, the last plank was put up on Saturday and we were all quietly relieved but a little sad as we missed seeing them. Over the course of the time that the fence was being erected, Elaine and I became quite comfortable speaking to each other from our drives and I would nip across and pop in for a chat or to share some of my home baking. So with the Jubilee weekend celebrations looming, Elaine and I went into the village to buy some bunting to decorate our fence. We were pleased that we managed to get the last of the bunting at the newsagents as everywhere else was sold out! On the day of the party, it was wet and cold but it did not put a dampener on our spirits as Pete and I went over next door to celebrate with a lovely spread that Elaine had laid out. It was a superb way to finish the day of celebrations to mark our fench and the Jubilee. As we left we noticed that the orange balloons looked wind swept and the bunting was soaked, but felt that the fence was the bond that has built a fantastic friendship with Bob and Elaine that would never have happened if the hedge had not come down.