planning

Our plot comes with planning permission for a house very close to the one we would design. But of course we want to make a few minor changes, so yesterday I met with one of the planning officers at East Northants Council. He was very helpful, and next we meet with a designer from Potton to draw up more plans.
We need plenty of car parking for all our visitors, as there isn't much space on the road in Denford, however, we mustn't make the area in front of the house look like a car park.

We are wondering how best to fit the staircase into the house, and whether we can afford the space to take a proper staircase up to the loft - if we could then we could have a "gallery" for all our books; otherwise, as all of our friends know, we shall have bookshelves on almost every wall!

I also met with Terry (my cousin Margaret's husband) who is going to put the fence up for us, now we have permission from the Environment Agency. It was a beautiful day, and we gathered hazelnuts from our own trees!
The picture shows our little stretch of the river, from the white post in the foreground, to the trees.

Some environmentalists have wondered if we coukd generate hydro-electricity. I gather that you need a drop of 2 metres to do so, and I am not sure if the River Nene drops by that much over its entire length!
It is pronounced by the way "Nenn"; by the time it reaches Cambridgeshire it is the "Neen", but west of Thrapston, it is defintely the "Nenn"!
H.E.Bates, best known for his Larkin novels, set in Kent, was born nearby and wrote a lovely book called Down the River, celebrating the Nene, and its Bedfordshire sister, the Ouse.