THE STANSFIELDS

David and Leslye Stansfield live in Crewkerne, a small town in Somerset in the south-west of England. They are both retired, David from airline flight operations after 41 years at Heathrow and Leslye from local government. They were married in 1997, David being a widower and Leslye being divorced for some years. David and Leslye moved there after deciding to leave the congestion and bustle of the south-east of England near London where they previously lived. They lead a very active life being keen travellers and gardeners. David  enjoys deep water game fishing in the Atlantic and Caribbean  and has been  very successful off the coast of the island of Madeira .   Leslye is a keen line dancer and swimmer and was previously also a teacher in modern and keep-fit dance. She holds a judo brown belt. They are both involved with Yeovil Cats Protection for whom David built and manages their website www.yeovilcats protection.info and Leslye runs their newsletter and publicity. She is also the newsletter editor for Crewkerne university of the third age. David also manages other web sites e.g. www.getfitter.net and www.smarter-training.com plus a couple of others. He also builds computers as a hobby. They have four offspring, Andrew, Margaret, Ian and Victoria  and  six grand-children, Lilah, Robert, Ruby, Michael, Apple and Honey. The family all live in the south of England. HOME AND GARDEN David and Leslye live on the outskirts of Crewkerne in a split level bungalow with a large garage underneath  which houses their small people carrier and MGF sports car. They have two cats, Cassius  a lilac Burmese and Cedric, a Silver Burmilla.  The bungalow is on the slope of a hill at an altitude of 250 feet. At the front, the view from the lounge is across to some local hills with sheep and cattle grazing. There are sometimes brilliant sunsets across to the west. The back garden is initially flat but then slopes up steeply to the top. This area has been terraced with railway sleepers and part of it is a rock garden with a series of little waterfalls coming down from 20 feet through small pools and then into a larger pond . There is plenty of bird life in the garden including wrens, blue tits, great tits, long tailed tits, robins, thrushes, blackbirds, many kinds of finches and a lot of other species.  Unfortunately there are also buzzards and other raptors which will sometimes swoop down and  take some of the smaller birds and when this happens the garden will be empty of birds for a day or so afterwards. Fortunately the pond does not need protection as, so far, the occasional heron in the area has not seen the large ghost carp and goldfish in the pond which would provide a nice meal. At the back of the garden at the highest point is a viewing platform with local views and distant views of about 20 miles with the Mendip hills visible at that distance. It is very pleasant, on a summers evening, to sit up there with a glass of wine and watch the world not going by!!! Occasionally we see hot air balloons passing over and sometime the Royal Navy harrier jets from nearby  Yeovilton air base give us an impromptu air display.  Exciting stuff!!  There is also a covered dining area next to the house where, in the warmer days, most of the meals are taken. This area has a grape vine growing on the inside of the roof which was extremely productive this year with about 40 large bunches of delicious grapes. There is a small vegetable plot, mainly used for growing exhibition size onions, During the early evening, the garden will be visited by up to four or five badgers who live on a hill further on from the garden. They pass through looking for food on one of their trails.