Here we are, can't find anything :-)

A very smooth move and lots of credit to a brilliant set of solicitors and two fab independent estate agents Plumm Properties and Marshall Vizard.  Bet you don't hear that very often but everyone was very decent and the whole process took less than two months from offers to getting moved in.  The removals team were also brilliant Diamond Removals and definitely deserve a plug.

So here we are at Totternhoe and the only thing I'm struggling with is not being able to find stuff.  It's my first day back at work tomorrow and I have no cycle helmet or hi vis jacket.  I do have work clothes and shoes so at least that is a plus. 

It has been bright and sunny pretty much since we arrived, this has been the view across the garden, I have contemplated it for some time and am still not sure how to make it work yet but am waiting for some inspiration and a large digger perhaps :-) It is much steeper than it looks from this picture and I spotted the first hardy walkers behind the trees heading off for the Knolls on Sunday.

 

At the front of the house we have been watching the gliders taking off and the red kites out practicing their own gliding across the fields.  The crows (or they might be rooks ) gather in the late afternoon then fly over to roost in the woods.

 

 

Haven't had too much time to be sad about leaving our old home but did have a couple of moments looking out on the garden and my fabulous shed when I had finally finished cleaning the house.  The garden had been nothing much when we arrived in fact it had been the place that I was fondest of and where most of my memories were at their strongest.  This was taken from the upstairs window probably Spring 2000 since some lavender had been planted and Tess cat was still youthful.

 

 

This was how things looked last Tuesday when I left.  (Without the cobweb I must add)

 

On the move - Farewell Watford, it's been great.

So, the house is full of cardboard boxes and it feels as if I have been in the loft for weeks.  References were made to shallow grave but I swear that the drilling was to dismantle some shelves.  We have lived in this welcoming house in a lovely terrace in North Watford for 13 years but it's now time for a new adventure.  Heading a bit further North to Totternhoe on Tuesday we leave a heap of memories and some truly brilliant neighbours and friends.  The people 5 doors away who shared our cat for a time and who we have enjoyed the company of ever since, either side who have taken in parcels, plied us with Sloe gin and have experienced goldfinch envy as our tree in the garden has been loaded down with up to 10 of the fighting little blighters at times. 

Here are just a few photos from the collection to show what a great town this is and here's hoping that the house that has looked after us for the last 13 years proves as friendly and welcoming to the new family that will be moving in.

 

And to finish, a poem from Margaret Atwood

The Moment

The moment when, after many years
of hard work and a long voyage
you stand in the centre of your room,
house, half-acre, square mile, island, country,
knowing at last how you got there,
and say, I own this,

is the same moment when the trees unloose
their soft arms from around you,
the birds take back their language,
the cliffs fissure and collapse,
the air moves back from you like a wave
and you can't breathe.

No, they whisper. You own nothing.
You were a visitor, time after time
climbing the hill, planting the flag, proclaiming.
We never belonged to you.
You never found us.
It was always the other way round.

Margaret Atwood