Puzzle

Another viewer has come and gone. Another lot of feedback received, now familiar: "loved the house, but not enough outside space" (actually this is an improvement on "really wanted a garden". Or perhaps a garage. Or perhaps both.).

It makes no difference how clearly the estate agents explain to potential buyers that in order to have a garden or "outside space" in this area of the city, for this type of house, you probably need to add many thousands of pounds to your budget.

This type of terrace, very common all over the city, usually has a concrete back yard - originally intended to accommodate the outside loo and the coal hole and to store the dustbin. Many of them now show valiant attempts at courtyard gardening, with planters and decking, although many also have rampant buddleia and ivy slowly prising the crumbling brick walls apart.

In the case of my own house, outside loo and coal hole long demolished, yard walls rendered and a stout wooden fence in place, the estate agent's particulars state:

Externally there is a town garden to the front and a very pleasant rear yard. (As in yard, not garden. American readers, 'yard' here in the UK does not mean garden. A pity.)

and later:

To the front of the property there is a small town garden planted with mature shrubbery, cast iron railings and flagstoned pathway. (Actually, the cast iron railings are my neighbour's, and a few straggling plants and a bully of a poppy in the impoverished soil round the bay window stretch the concept of a town garden a bit far, in my opinion. But we won't quibble about that.) 

To the rear of the property it benefits from a bright aspect, with an array of mature plants, flowers and shrubbery, a beautiful small acer tree, large decorative containers filled with roses and climbing plants, outside tap, secure storage area and a gate giving access to the back lane.

Yet people still roll up to view, oooh and aaah over the house, but are somehow bizarrely disappointed that my little yard hasn't suddenly transmogrified into a leafy, grassy garden fit for dogs and small children to gambol in, or fairies to live at the bottom of, whilst, miraculously, remaining at a price in keeping with all the other Edwardian houses with yards in this city.

Maybe they are just sparing my feelings? I don't know; it's confusing. The annuals in the yard will be over soon, and many of the planters put away for the winter. "Outside space' will be freed up, and the bleakness of the back yard will re-emerge until the first Spring bulbs make their appearance.

But at the end of the street, a few hundred yards away, is the real outside space - no vendor's gardening skills required - that makes it such a pleasant area:

Maybe this is where those fairies live.