Hunting houses

Off for a quick bike ride this evening -- 10 minutes in any direction means you hit either major (i.e., fast and dangerous) roads or a hill, neither of which is particularly pleasant. However, you certainly get to see far more of Winchester. Tuesday evening, I headed over to yoga, discovered that it was cancelled, and so pottered around Hyde, finding both streets of lovely houses and -- heaven! -- cycle paths through and around the football and rugby pitches. Tonight, less luck on the cycle path front, but there were some rather fab properties in the St Cross and Stanmore neighbourhoods.

Let's see. How about this one? Situated at the end of a quiet lane, it has great views across the water meadows to St Cross Hospital and St Catherine's Hill. Perfect for cats.



Not convinced? OK, here's something slightly grander. Not sure what it's The Master's Lodge for -- again, possibly, the hospital, but perhaps the boys' school? Either way, buckets of old-school charm and just round the corner from a pub and a fish n chip shop. Ideal for PJ.



Something more contemporary, then. I rather liked this, perched among the trees and next to some tennis courts. Perfect for me!



Unfortunately, I'm certain that these are all well out of our price range. Shouldn't complain though, as we're in a considerably more fortunate position than most and should be able to buy something, somewhere, at some point, without massively overextending ourselves. The Observer had a thoroughly depressing article about the housing market, talking about the division between "landed" and "non-landed" and the misfortune of being born too late to get on the property ladder. It's largely the fault of 1) speculative buy-to-let investors and 2) people relying on property to provide a pension. I blame Thatcher, of course. Let's hope Gordon does something to rectify the situation -- including turning over one of these little beauties to ME!