Mrs Down's Diary - January 6

MY PROMISED Christmas present wish for the last four years looks as though it might be granted soon. Various ploys to delay its implementation have been entered by John.

Too late. Too early. Too expensive. Too short notice. Etc etc. My wish? A beech hedge round the back garden we have created to keep Ollie, our grandson secure and offer him plenty of room to play in.

Ollie as I have said before is on the autistic spectrum.

He enjoys being outside, the freedom to run around, ride his bike in the yard and especially shovel in the corn heaps.

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But it is too dangerous for him to be unsupervised and as he is non verbal, it is impossible to explain why we have to keep the door locked into the yard.

Tractors and cars in the farm yard, and proximity to the road which although a quiet lane, is increasingly being treated as a rat run despite road signs clearly stating that it is unsuitable for heavy traffic, all pose huge hazards.

One of these road signs has even been knocked down by a large lorry which had difficulty traversing the turn. Enough said.

I blame sat navs for highlighting it as a short cut route.

I have lost count of the number of cars coming for help to be pulled out of a green lane which Tom Tom and other sat navs all give as a route into our village.

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Rant over. The portion of garden I want hedging has been filched from the paddock at the back of the farmhouse.

A few years ago we built on to give access to this garden so that Ollie had a safe route outside. The initial fence we put up kept him in for a year or two, now we have a much higher one.

It has even been christened the local gulag. "You just lack a few guard towers "a friend said.

Serious stuff though. Something not always appreciated by people who can give verbal instructions to a child to keep safe.

But crisis point has been reached with my hedge.

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After four years of protected growth, the lawn of the garden, which was originally just pasture grass, now looks temptingly lush to the sheep that are often put in this paddock to graze it down.

They have become adept and expert at squeezing under to get at the grass, creating exciting new escape routes for Ollie.

"You've got more obstacles to keep the sheep out as you've got to keep Ollie in" my daughter said.

A double fence is being created with the beech hedge on the inside.

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In a few years, the back garden should look less like a prison yard and more like a leisure area it should be with its climbing frame, trampoline, sandpit and race track.

The sheep, should they ever complete their mission again to access this green and fertile mini-field, will love it.