More Roade

The previous post was actually written yesterday, in case it seems confusing!
Second wander round the town this morning shows Roade to rather more varied in housing style than I’d first thought. There are slate roofs as well as the ubiquitous tiles; and there are thatched roofs. These aren’t just your any-old-day thatched roofs: they have patterns at the pitch of the roof like a pattern on a lace doily. Over the thatch, my observant wife pointed out, they stretch wire netting; it’s almost invisible. This seems to be more over the thinner thatching. There was at least one house that had very thick thatching, about a foot in thickness.
Everywhere you go in England, it seems, there are plastic windows frames. I’ve mentioned this before, and the keys that lock them all up. At least here, where we’re in a two-storey house, we can open the upper windows without fear that someone will climb up the spouting and burglarise the place. It’s a relief to have windows open at night, as it’s so muggy. But the door locks are intriguing: in order to lock the door you have to first force the handle right up (initially you think you’re going to snap it off). That causes a thin bolt to slide across, and then you can lock the door with the key. It took me a number of goes to figure out this handle twisting manoeuvre, and I’ve finally conquered it. Opening the door doesn’t require any manipulation of the handle, just a straightforward unlocking.