welsh hills again

The run up to Christmas might not seem the ideal time to get the decorators in.  Over the summer we flirted with the idea of moving house.  We found something that we liked which doesn't happen all that often because this place is a place we love.  But it didn't come together and, with something like relief, we have committed ourselves to this house again for another little while.  We won't live here forever.  With a house and a holiday cottage and six outbuildings, two greenhouses and a couple of acres of land, it is not a house in which to grow properly old.  But for now we will happily stay here and as part of falling back in love with the house I wanted to reconnect with it which means giving it some time and attention. So first of all we had our bedroom and the landing where we keep our books (well some of them) redecorated.  It is quite extraordinary how much stuff we have and how emptying a room makes the whole house overflow with things!...

I know that most of my readers are over forty. I have surely intensified that by writing about the whole process of ageing!  I make no apology for doing that.  I think how my generation is ageing is fascinating and the whole question is weirdly invisible in our society (unlike "anti ageing" which is everywhere!).  I also think I am not alone in having vivid recall of when my children were small.  And things that interest you when you have small children don't stop being interesting when your children grow.  Indeed lots of people of my generation are passionate about enviromental issues not simply from a political perspective but also in an intensely personal way.  How we live now matters for the future of our children and grandchildren. So I am going to get my entirely lovely daughter in law to guest blog here every few weeks to tell us about her life and the progress of her website, one baby owner.   She can speak for herself so here she is: ...