Village house names

This will come as no surprise to anyone who lives in a village.

Houses here have their postal address, but that isn't the real identifier. Our house is 'The Old Vicarage', but really it's 'the B...'s old house, before that it was a Dr Reid who lived there and before that it was the Rev Smith-Masters' house'. Various people have told us how they had to go and have an interview with him in his study before he would agree to marry them.

The house next to us used to be a shop. The big one across the junction is known as 'Talkie's House' because an old gentleman called Talkie Taylor used to be there and if you look carefully you can see all the letters for Happy Birthday covered up with white paint on the ancient side of the barn opposite. That must have been some birthday celebration for him.

Sometimes I explain where we live by saying that we are right opposite the P...'s, who run a local taxi company.

We are used to the pattern of lights being on or off at night and watch out for these in our neighbours' houses at the back. The car head lights shine briefly as they pass over a distant hill.