Archers thread #147: Spring is sprung, the grass is riz, I wonder how old Ambridge is. Discuss The Archers here.

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

Many thanks to @PseudoBadger for kicking off this long, long series of Archers threads.

All views on The Archers welcome here! New blood welcomed, and of course we are always delighted to welcome back former or occasional listeners/posters. We don't all agree on all points, although we do mostly try to be civil about it. Most of us are posting tongue in cheek a lot of the time, so don't worry about revealing that you'd like to have the general public watching you work and asking questions, or other unusual views.

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For newer listeners, lurkers or those who just have no idea what we're talking about, @DadDadDad has created this useful thread: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/radio_addicts/3557323-For-Archers-fans-a-guide-to-acronyms-on-the-long-running-discussion-threads-and-any-other-meta-thread-questions-you-may-have - BOOP point for him! (See thread for explanation.)

Title comes from this poem, with which I drive my family to distraction at this time of year.

Spring is sprung, the grass is riz
I wonder where the birdies is.
The bird is on the wing.
But that’s absurd, the wing is on the bird.
Or so I’ve heard.

Ogden Nash

Apologies to @TeenDivided for ignoring her good ideas for the thread title. Here they are to kickstart our ruminations:
'window on the world of cheesemaking'
'how long until the intercom is fatal'
'will Brian settle in new pastures'
'Springing towards Easter with Widowers, Windows, and wails'

Over to you!

I think the issue is it's not their property to mess about with.

it's a pergola in a garden, not knocking down all the interior walls.

Sure, but Eddie said Clarrie had ‘always wanted somewhere to sit’ in the garden. I find it hard to believe Oliver and Caroline hadn’t provided the house and garden with every possibly delight when they last refurbished it.

And it is funny (weird, not ha ha) that no one even mentioned his name in an ‘Oliver thinks it’s a great idea’ sort of way …

Still not seeing how it's acceptable to erect a structure, however temporary, without landlord approval. But perhaps I'm taking this too seriously .

because the UK is batshit about rented property.

It's a pergola. It can be taken down and moved.

Can’t see it’s much different from installing a trampoline except that hopefully it won’t end up upside down in the road the next time the wind is stronger than a breeze.

Eddie said that Oliver had helped to put it up, or at least helped lay the slabs to put it on, so Oliver probably approves.

Ah, I must have missed that bit!

AIBU - tenant has erected a sage green pergola in the garden without permission, should I evict them?
I'm actually imagining what the responses would be if that were in AIBU. I reckon 49% YABU "It's a temporary wooden structure, get over it" ... 51% YANBU
"They are CFs evict immediately!" I know it sounds like Oliver was involved but I'm just enjoying the concept 😀

AIBU? I bought a rather dilapidated farmhouse and some land when the estate which owned it evicted the tenant farmers who had lived there for several generations after they fell into rent arrears. They rather illogically but understandably blamed me for their troubles. However, I took their younger boy under my wing and helped him set up his own business, which unfortunately didn't go well in the end. When I remarried I moved out and let the family live back at the farm for a peppercorn rent. Sadly, my wife died. I have ended up living in one room of my own house while the ever-expanding Grundy clan live in the rest of the house and run their assorted enterprises from my property. They cook my meals and do my laundry but AIBU to think they sometimes forget who actually owns Grange Farm? Also, should I leave them the farm in my will? I am estranged from my children but they are my flesh and blood, after all.

I've actually never thought before about where Oliver lives?! I'd assumed he lived in a very nice flat at Grey Gables, but now it's sold where does he live? Maybe he never lived in at Grey Gables? I've always felt that the Grundy's (as much as I like them) were taking advantage a bit, and Oliver is just too nice to ever ask them to move on.

Wait... I just re-read this... Oliver lives in a room with them?! How have I missed this? Been an avid listener for more than a decade!

Oh so nice to hear Debbie!

i can’t be the first person to say… OMG - WHAT - AMAZING

but also - really-they couldn’t have made schedules work a little better 😊 what a treat though

@AndAllOurYesterdays I can’t lie I was a bit emosh

And a nice bit of moustache twirling from Justin.

Oh, was Debbie there? I came in late, just to hear the ridiculous Justin-as-a-devious-business-man at the end

Great episode, and Justin on top form.

But perhaps I'm taking this too seriously

@Impostersyndrome

I think this level of overthinking is exactly what we're about on this thread 😄

He has been living at Grange Farm for quite a while now; since a year or so after he was not allowed to spend Christmas 2017 how he wanted to at Grey Gables but instead forced to join the Grundy family in his own house.

Why do people in Ambridge seem to choose to have confidential conversations at The Bull, and what on earth was the point of ringing someone up on a Sunday to tell them that a person you already knew was opposed to "the Ambridge development" still is opposed to it, and you haven't found out anything more about his plans but you will let the person on the phone know if you do? Totally idiotic.

I once worked with a UKIP Parliamentary candidate. She never got elected, of course. She was seriously incompetent at her job and mad as a box of frogs.

Hang on, Oliver doesn’t still live there does he? I remember everything mentioned above, but I think I’d assumed I’d missed something since then and he had moved to somewhere more suitable. Or do I have a very different idea of where Clarrie and Eddie live in my mind?

what on earth was the point of ringing someone up on a Sunday to tell them that a person you already knew was opposed to "the Ambridge development" still is opposed to it, and you haven't found out anything more about his plans but you will let the person on the phone know if you do?

exposition for the listener. Who were all assuming Justin or Vince was behind the charging station anyway.

On to my next question: so does Lilian know?

Yes it's definitely because the foley team were struggling with moustache twirling sound FX so they just went with an entirely superfluous phone call. That doesn't explain why it had to happen in the Bill though.

I've been working on the basis that Justin was in the shop as he planned to open one though he doesn't strike me as the hands on market research type. One has to assume this is to do with the garage forecourt type shop the charging station will offer. and not the just for local activism espionage.
Hmmmmm.

But can't complain about anything really because Debbie. (Sighs lovingly)