From Brendan McDonald.
THE following events took place in the 1850s:
• Millard Fillmore was elected vice-president of the USA.
• Wagner composed his opera ‘Lohengrin’.
• The Great Exhibition of London opened at Crystal Palace.
• French artist Gustav Courbet painted ‘The Stonebreakers’.
• Workmen built Dan Murphy’s house and rendered the outside in a dismal grey cement finish. Dan wasn’t there at the time.
In 2008, Dan Murphy’s house was painted for the first time. It was painted a lovely, cheerful lemon and white, which transformed the village and brought admirers from all over the Island.
Then along came those horrid Planning geezers with their rolled umbrellas and bowler hats and exclaimed: ‘That’s a funny shade of grey, Dan. What’s with the lemon, eh, Dan? Don’t you know you are breaking the law?
And anyway we can’t have a lemon-coloured house in a country parish. This is not Beverly Hills. Get it off at once or you’ll face a parish hall inquiry.’ Spoilsports! Cross them off your Christmas card list, Dan.
114 Don Farm,
St Brelade.
