A room with a view

“Choose a place where you won’t do very much harm, and stand in it for all you are worth, facing the sunshine”.

E.M.Foster – ‘A Room with a View’

The Girl and I are fortunate enough to live in a home that is a fair bit more spacious than is strictly necessary for us. Now, it may well prove in the long run that we are no longer able to manage the ‘estate’ and down-sizing will become the order of the age, but in the meantime we are enjoying having the room to pursue our various interests without having to make too many compromises.

Before coming to Canada The Girl and I lived for a decade and a half in average sized apartments (average for the UK, of course) and are thus much relieved at not having to suffer the same constraints now. We have both worked from home a fair bit (particularly during the pandemic) and are most grateful for having the wherewithal so to do.

The Girl has an office at the front of the house which is of a decent size and is reasonably quiet. It faces south west, however, towards Mount Newton, so it doesn’t get the best of the day. The situation was made worse by the presence without of an unfortunately placed pine tree, the which had grown out of proportion whilst resisting all attempts to reign in its over-enthusiasm.

A conversation with our neighbours – who were looking to get some tree work done themselves – planted the idea in our heads that the best thing to do might just be to dispense with this tree entirely. This is not a thing that we do lightly – always endeavouring to honour living things – but in this case it was not possible to preserve this tree in a reasonable form. We will plant some more compact replacement when the works are finished.

Meanwhile – take a look at these ‘before and after’ images…