We're gradually approaching the end of the first month.

We're gradually approaching the end of the first month.

So how we are all doing then? How are we shaping up at this rather dark and uneventful time of the year? Nothing of any real note seems to have happened so far and here in this sleepy corner of Manor House all is very wet, wintry and nondescript. Even the squirrels and foxes are still in deep hibernation while the trees look cold, bare, skeletal and desperately in need of some green spring clothing.

 There is an air of static immobility in North London, a sense that the desolation of winter is here to stay for quite a while. Even the red post box standing on our street looks lonely and woebegone. It feels as if the world really has stopped, somebody has turned the volume down and we may never see any real semblance of life until at least March.

But wait a moment things are going on and undoubtedly it may continue like this for quite a while. The whole of Woodberry Down and Green Lanes is undergoing major rebuilding and renaissance, a London suburb that seems to have brought itself a brand new identity and character. Seemingly, within the space of a couple of years Manor House is beginning to look like a mini city on the outskirts of the West End of London.

In fact as far as the eye can see there are soaring cranes with red lights, more and more apartment blocks that seem to be multiplying by the hour and a part of London that was beginning to look a bit run down and tired has now been given vital resuscitation. Manor House is now breathing properly and a London suburb is now alive and well, the whole area now given a proper injection of life, a good kick up the backside and a thorough restoration when it all looked as if the whole area had given up all hope.

We are now surrounded by, what can only be described as London's biggest and most ambitious building site. My wife was right. Here, on the outskirts of the West End and the red lit financial giants of the City, there are all the vast supplies of building materials that keep this massive project going. For some of the residents it is a huge inconvenience, a dreadful disruption to their everyday lives and nothing but a confounded nuisance.

All day, long, gigantic lorries roll and trundle their way into the goods yard, then stop for a while before going again, rumbling and lumbering forward laboriously and noisily, before squeaking and then squealing metallically with all the heavy industry of the Industrial Revolution. Admittedly there are none of those smoky chimneys and cotton mills that once came to define England and there are no grimy chimney sweeps with poverty stricken faces.

This is the 21st century and now at the beginning of 2018 vast towerscapes have shot up with all the speed and efficiency of those hugely impressive edifices known as the Shard, the Cheese Grater, the Walkie Talkie and the beautifully named Gherkin. It is rather like living next to an architectural wonderland, a fusion of cool modernism, up to date glass and steel, symmetrically perfect patterns and shapes, lovely water features, the remarkably attractive Woodberry Wetlands and heavenly open spaces for young children and new generations of families.

Woodberry Wetlands is perhaps one of the finest and most outstanding additions to the North London landscape. Roughly five minutes away from us, the historic Alexandra Palace stands in majestic isolation in the distance but now Woodberry Wetlands is the latest new development and it's so conveniently on our doorstep.

You can only gasp in astonishment at the Wetlands, its wondrous array of nature at her most desirable. On Sunday summer mornings bird watching parties gather together in small clusters, butterfly colonies are liberally sprinkled around vivid, sparkling waters with some of the prettiest wildlife in London. If you didn't know you were living in London you could have sworn you were in the middle of some rural idyll of Worcestershire or a peaceful village in the Yorkshire Dales.

What you may not be ready for are those grinding pieces of machinery that sound as though they're in terrible pain, the clattering cranes, hundreds of Portakabins with shining lights that seem to light up Green Lanes, the spinning cement mixers, small groups of builders, brick layers and surveyors with hard hats. Unfortunately it does feel as though we've been hemmed in and trapped by masses of advertising boards where all visible light has been or more less shut out, obliterating daylight completely.

Still we'll do our utmost to keep calm and remain unaffected by all of the mechanical activity around here. It is to be hoped that at some point in the far off future the new Woodberry Downs will finally be declared open and ready to welcome a new dawn. Meanwhile the Green Lanes pavements are wet and sodden, the all day Saturday rain now taking itself off to pastures anew. It may be winter outside but in my heart it's spring. Now we've all heard that heartfelt sentiment before.