welsh hills again

It was such a huge thing to do, both practically and emotionally, to move out of our old house that it is astonishing to find how quickly and easily we seem to be settling into our rental house and a different life.  When we planned this transition stage we thought we would use the period of living in a rental house to travel and to spend time with our children and grandchildren.  Covid 19 has put paid to that for the time being.  The world may open up again.  We are beginning to wonder whether we might get to France later this year for a holiday with some of our children and a visit to our friends who live in Provence.  Will it work? Who knows?  There may be vaccine passports or closed borders.  For the time being all that is still off limits so what to do right now? We are visiting the building plot once a week.  The shape of the house is now clear and the whole plot is no longer a mud bath but ready for more building and soon an electricity connection.  That is the purpose of the ne

 So we achieved our move,  completing on the 15th February, and here we are in our rental property.  It has been strange partly by not seeming strange.  After fifteen years and a deep attachment to our old house I had thought it might be a real wrench to leave but no, the long slow build up seems to have produced something where it was finally a relief just to get on and do it, make the move, get ready for the next stage.  The week before we completed was the hardest with boxes everywhere and the job of cleaning to do at the old house in readiness for handing it over.  Now things are falling into place, the boxes are being emptied and moved out to the garage and the house is emerging into some sort of order.  I do miss our stunning views but there are things about living here that I like. From the rental house is a short walk through the churchyard to the main street and the shops.  Today the sun shone and I took a detour right through the churchyard. Snowdrops drift out from the wall

Well here we are, today is the day, moving day.  How and why is a long story and I haven't wanted to write about it until now, some funny sense of maybe jinxing things maybe!   So for the various people who have asked about it here is the story. We have been here for fifteen years and have loved it deeply but there is only one life and one of the things which has always interested us is building a new house from scratch.  Lots of people watch Grand Designs and Amazing Spaces.  That might have been all we did too but we began to feel that doing something about that itch might be a way to resolve the question of whether we would at some stage want to move from here.  There are two houses here - an ancient farmhouse and a holiday cottage, many outbuildings, two acres of land.  It is high up on a hill.  Probably at some stage we would need to leave. Perhaps we might build something?  Did we have another adventure in us?  It hung around as an idea but building plots are few and far betw