Feeling welcome

Well, I did it! DH left after lunch yesterday to collect his mother for her first visit to the new house, leaving the place not exactly ready for visitors, to put it mildly. They arrived back late this afternoon to find everything clean and tidy after a truly gargantuan effort on my part. I'm shattered!

Yesterday afternoon I was busy ironing some very creased curtains when there was a loud knock on the front door. When I’d finally found the key (we always use the back door) I opened it to see a very small boy holding up two pieces of paper for me to take. Behind him were two slightly older brothers, who had actually drawn the pictures on the papers, and their smiling parents with a box of chocolates for us.

They are our immediate neighbours to the left and had come to welcome us. The boys' mother said she'd try to keep the noise down, to which I replied that I'm totally inured to the sound of children playing and in any case am starting to go slightly deaf. Such nice people. I think we are going to be very happy here. It’s like old times to have children’s drawings stuck to the door of the fridge.

Tomorrow DD and her family arrive for a week’s stay, so I’ll be listening to music practice and playing board games rather than blogging for a while, but it will make a wonderful change from moving furniture and unpacking. See you anon…

PS  It was remiss of me to have omitted to mention (blame my bad memory) our first visitors a week previously, who arrived at the back door with a bottle of wine, just as we were bringing in yet more furniture. They are our next-but one-neighbours. We feel very fortunate to have landed where we are.

The river of time…

…is running even faster than the stream behind the house after the rain of the past couple of weeks. I can’t believe it’s a whole fortnight since I last posted. You must all think I’ve fallen off the planet or got trapped behind the last pieces of furniture still waiting in the garage for us to have the time and energy to bring them the final few yards into the house.

Thanks to the sterling efforts of DH and my wonderful brother-in-law, the van with the magic tailgate was very fully utilised on Move Friday and by the time we had to return it, our capacious garage closely resembled a second-hand furniture warehouse. Sadly the weather hasn’t been very willing to co-operate and we’ve had a week of frequent and heavy showers, which we’ve had to dodge almost every time we decided to bring in another item or two.

Despite this, the fable of the tortoise and the hare has proved true yet again and we’ve slowly but surely moved all but a couple of very heavy items to their proper places. These will have to wait until half-term, which begins a week today, and the visit of DD and her husband and two strapping sons, who have rashly promised to help.

Only then, when the dresser is finally in place, will I be able to unpack the last of the boxes and put the living-room properly to rights.  Nevertheless, in spite of the residual chaos, the new house is already starting to feel like home, and the car and the very small campervan no longer twitch as they pass the turning which leads up the hill to our old house.

As for DH and me, we’re tired, aching and dotted with scratches, cuts and bruises from the unaccustomed manhandling of awkward pieces of furniture, yet there is a real sense of achievement at the end of every day. We’re definitely going to enjoy living in this house.

Betwixt and between

This expressive phrase sums up very aptly how I feel and what life is like just now. We got the keys to our new house last Tuesday morning and since then for me life has been a blur of packing and beginning to unpack at the other end, while DH gets on with all the little jobs best done before the furniture arrives. I’ve also filled the freezer with ready-made meals, so that no time will need to be spent cooking for the next few days.

I’m pleased to report that after visits on two successive days from the telecoms engineer, we now have a working telephone and a broadband service which will at least double and possibly triple our current speed. OK, it’s only from 2 to 4 or 6 Mbps, but it will seem very fast to us after so many years at the end of the telephone line miles from the exchange.

We’ve already made a number of trips up and down the hill, with the car and the very small campervan laden with boxes and bags and smaller items of furniture.

Now that I’ve finally managed to corral DH and get him to decide on a date, we’ve also started to take apart the heavy furniture as far as we can, ready for D-Day on Friday. This is when DH will be hiring the van with the exciting electric tailgate and, with the invaluable help of my very kind brother-in-law, will be moving all the big items of furniture.

It’s all very exciting and tiring and lots of other mixed emotions, but above all there’s a sense of relief that after all the waiting and preparation, the move is finally happening.

The view from the old house...

...and from the new. In the distance are the hills where we have lived for so long.

Our present surroundings. In the valley is the village we're moving to.

Our new surroundings, with the stream that runs past the garden...

...where I keep thinking I may catch a glimpse of Ratty....