Photo Copyright: Maggie May
Those readers who have been following the saga of the wind chimes that were cut down maliciously, by an irate neighbour might wonder what the latest episode is.
In the above photo you may remember that two of the chimes on the tree, were chopped down by a pair of long handled cutters being poked through the shrub, early one morning. Unfortunately for the cutter, we witnessed the act. I just repaired the larger chime, hung it nearer to the house and rehung the smallest in the tree.
This action, brought a torrent of abuse and threats in the street to my family and frightened our youngest granddaughter. It came quite unexpectedly and continued throughout the coming fortnight on several occasions. It involved bullying and screaming and ranting.
Because our family have been bullied by this person before, when we were forced to alter something on our property that this person didn't like and because we were bullied and verbally abused on that occasion too, I decided to stand firm this time, realising that once you give in to a bully, then you are opening yourself up to further abuse on another occasion. This is in fact what happened.
The first thing I did was to find out if the chimes were annoying other people and the answer so far has been no.
I then decided to tie up the large chime at night time and on windy days. However, the abuse continued. The person wanted it down. Nothing less would do.
We have received a letter from the council about the complaint, but when I rang back to explain to the very kind man, the exact situation, he told me to leave things for now as they are and murmured *one rule for them and another for me.*
You see, this person plays a musical instrument sometimes very late at night and and also some other very loud things that go on from time to time that I cannot for obvious reasons write exactly what they are, for the sake of anonymity.
I don't know what the decibels of the screaming at us in the street are, but I should imagine its louder and more annoying than a wind chime.
So at the moment, I am hoping the situation will calm down. I have been through a lot over the last six months and have come out a stronger person. Lets hope this doesn't become the one straw that breaks the camel's back.
I have found myself looking in Estate Agent shop windows much more than usual though.
