BELMONT RURAL
Edsite

Note: The distinction between this page and Sort of Blog (linked right) has yet to be determined

CONSUMER WARNING Previously called Oddities, this page acted as a receptacle for items that didn't fit in easily anywhere else. It will continue to do that. Plus pieces in which the website editor feels it worthwhile to use the first person singular (hence the incredibly witty new title). To this end one of the original items below has been amended slightly. It may sound like self-indulgence but there are occasions when other locutions are unnecessarily cumbersome and, even more important, occasions when a point of view needs nailing down to a specific person.

A DIFFERENT KIND OF EMAIL Nice to welcome a non-polemical email."I have been browsing the Belmont website, and notice you do articles on 'What I do in my garage'. Please can you contact me."

It's my own fault. Three pieces in the Belmont People section are entitled Garage Story One, Two and Three. However it was my interest in mechanical matters rather than garages that provided the spur. I said I would be delighted to probe his relationship with his garage even if he simply parked his car there. Rare enough on this estate.

In fact it's a good deal more astonishing than that, as the new Belmont People item reveals. Click here

CRIME DATA Another point made by this correspondent was that he could find no mention on the website of some burglary or other he'd heard rumours about. But then I hadn't heard the rumours either. One minor source of crime statistics is the website section, Parish Council minutes. The police regularly attend PC meetings and usually provide a round-up of crime on the estate. That said, you can relax. We're a low-crime area.

"... a stately pleasure dome decree..."
Belmont Rural's tree warden, Brian Hubbard, erects these structures to protect spring bulb shoots from over-zealous mowing by Herefordshire Council. A double whammy! Even if the shoots don't appear everyone benefits from what is clearly a country art form.

Warning! Don't walk
your rabbit on Northolme
About 8.30 on a late September evening. An approaching woman on Northolme Road is accompanied by the smallest dog imaginable. But it isn't a dog! It's a ferret! Quick tip for potential ferret walkers. A collar won't be secure enough for that sinuous neck. You'll need a special mini-harness

It's not a bypass and
they're not memorials
This year Hereford filled the flower troughs along the "inner ring road" with trailing petunias. Smart move, since it disguised the industrial nature of the troughs. Seeing them for the first time one Belmont resident came up with a highly individual reaction. Noting the shape of the troughs in conjunction with the small sponsors' labels on the sides, he concluded they were a gesture towards all those killed in road accidents in the county.

Views from both sides
of the ageist fence
An elderly Belmont resident (All right, I confess, it was I, the website editor) stopped his fairly expensive car (Now exchanged for a Skoda) at the Blueschool Street - Widemarsh Street junction traffic lights to be rammed in the rear - fairly gently - by an old Peugeot containing four teenagers. Trying to assess the damage, if any, he found himself addressed by a uniformed man in a fluorescent yellow jacket who had appeared out of nowhere. "Just when you're asking yourself 'Whenever you need a policeman...' here one is!" The two cars were directed into Widemarsh Street where the policeman complimented the Belmonter on his choice of car. To the teenage driver, by now nervously smoking, he said, "Put that out now and get in my car." Yes there are advantages in growing older, but the Belmonter drove away feeling mildly uneasy. He'd been a lad himself, once.