Village life (I)

This might become a series of entries talking about the pros and cons of living in a small village of 400 inhabitants as I have done for more or less of the past six years now.
One basic fact is that everybody knows everybody else, at least by sight. This brings a lot of security as every "foreigner", i.e. everybody who is not known to live here, is watched closely. On the other hand, it makes it difficult to keep great parts of one's life private as one is watched constantly even though one belongs.
Another basic fact is that a lot of the villagers are pensioners who have enough time to sit outside their houses or walk around and watch what is going on.
Small villages have the disadvantage that they lack shops and services, though ours has a small food store, two coffee-bars, a butcher's, and a beautician's. Even the county capital seven kilometres away does not have a decent supermarket or a laundry service.
Due to the lack of industry and big roads, the air is clean; and apart from tractors in the morning and the motorcycles of some irritating mechanics on Sunday afternoon the atmosphere is quiet.