change is as good as a rest

Big news - life is ever changing and full of surprises!

We are moving house... back down south or at least its little way down nearer Leeds and family and to a house which we think hopefully is as nice as the one we are leaving... its a hard act to follow but somehow it feels right and while its come right out of the blue -it feels ok (ish)...

We will be very sad to leave the sea and our lovely community who made us so welcome, good neighbors, trees and rooks all the things that have made living here so special (sheep eating your plants - ducks sabotaging your sunflowers) but the new house appears to have several advantages, which hopefully will make up for these losses.

The new property is marginally bigger, it has a small 'garden room' and a large utility space freeing up the kitchen. There's a reasonably sized private sun catching outside space - may be even room for the summerhouse. There is also a garage. Its at the end of a small lane so nobody walks past or looks in and it opens onto fields and a farm... its in a small village just outside of Darlington.. its a little bit quirky, The whole set up is a bit like where we are now..10 mins of the A1... houses, farm and big house.. no amenities just post box and bus stop slightly nearer civilization but still out of the way... no sea view but open land all around and not far from the river. Just over an hour to family which is the main rationale for moving - our grand children are growing so quick... and as close to Newcastle and observatory as we are now so Dr Fred can continue all his work.. Another advantage...there a Boyes in Darlo and Barnard castle so it just gets better every time I think about it!!

our new (rather misty) view from the front of the house

It has all happened very quick and very unexpectedly last week I was rescuing paving slabs to build the summerhouse on the paddock - no intention of moving.. but there was always a niggle..... and then pretty much out of nowhere - a chance find... my head is reeling but I'm excited and ready to get organised although god only knows how its a good job i.m a minimalist.....

So this last week has been a completely new experience for me.. I have never moved house 'properly ' before - I didn't really leave home until I was over 50 and then I moved slowly a bit at a time living in two houses part time. when we finally made the move to where we are now - again we did it a bit piecemeal - one big van load and then over the next 5 years bringing stuff as and when I found it on visits back to my other house (which I rent out).

Its a bit of a shock to be honest ha ha... the realisation of how much stuff we have accumulated and starting to pack it all up is a mammoth task even from such a wee cottage as we have....... emptying the walls in my studio is quite sad but I can envisage all my bits and pieces finding a new home in a new space and all will be well.

I may be very busy for a few weeks so postings may be erratic - internet stuff has to be sorted all those pesky things that require attention when moving.. watch this space....

RubyStarrs in Paris...

Finally we have made it to Paris. It was a bit of a long travel day - we decided to come by train so we could experience the full glory of British Rail or whatever it's called now which actually delivered perfectly on time... and then the Eurostar which was incredibly disappointing! All that beautiful St. Pancreas Station and the Eurostar is sited in the dungeon... overcrowded, dark, lousy facilitated space... and then the train was an hour late it felt like a long time before we got any fresh air - but eventually we wound up in gay Paree... We navigated the metro and found our airbnb gaff. A mere 70 steps to the fourth floor on a rather lovely winding wooden staircase to a very nice roof top flat which is comfortable and gives a view across a lovely Courtyard with some obviously much posher flats. It's located really centrally about two minutes away from the Opera Garnier so a very good location for getting everywhere...

Funchal

So after three days at sea we finally hit Funchal in Madeira. An escape from the ship, and I have to say it was very pleasant indeed. First of all the weather is really splendid. Especially when you know that everybody else in the UK is suffering grim storms and vile winds.. Over here it is between 22 and 25 degrees is really quite warm. Funchal is a pretty city. It's built on a hill it with lots of lovely white houses with stunning red roofs. In order to get the best of it we walked along the sea front until we got to the cable car and we took it up the hill. It was a really good ride much longer than we imagined and it's quite weird because it goes right through the town - completely over everybody's house... So not only do you get a lovely vista of the bay but you can view the beautiful rooftops and get to look in everybody's gardens and to look at their picnic sets.. clean washing nice plants... scratty backyards.... We got off th

Another Day in Norway where our Trusty Traveller finds Tromsø, Trolls and Totally misses Aurora....

Tromsø - the most northern city on the planet... Its quite a pretty little town with lots of wood fronted shops, but of course like everywhere like this, it is just one big tourist hive and every shop is selling 'indigenous' gifts- didthe Sami make aurora themed mugs and fridge magnets? Nearest I'll get a polar bear (i hope) Although I have to say I did like the big stuffed polar bear and black bear and I am presuming that these are either not real (unlikely) or culled as they sometimes have to be. But most of the stuff is just northern lights tat or Troll tat. Peer Gynt.. famous worldover To be fair the best bit of Tromsø for me was the Troll Museum! We went to the art gallery which was quite interesting (see instagram account) but not astounding, but I always like to look at the local art. We had a mooch around town in the snow and then we went to find the Trolls. This museum was absolutely crazy daft... it was totally dedi

Planet Ruby Starrs

Search This Blog