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....

Thank goodness we don’t have a cat…

…or this would be a regular scene here at the moment.  

Enjoy...

Images speak louder than words…

…or so I hope. Words seem to be in short supply for me at the moment, at least thoughtful, coherent, blogging-type words. Of course DH and I are exchanging a multitude of words as the move draws nearer, not all of them coherent - or even printable. In addition my ageing brain is having to organise lots of very different thoughts and words as I try to prepare sermons well in advance for four different Sundays over the next six weeks, to cover holiday absences in our group of seven churches.

Here instead are a few photos – snapshots of this busy period of preparation and change - in nature, as well as at home.

Season of mists...

...and mellow fruitfulness.

The hills we are leaving...

...and below, the valley we are moving to.

A moment of relaxation in my sister's garden, wearing her hat...

...and several more this week, looking at the view from my mother-in-law's garden.

At sixes and sevens…

…is probably an understatement of the state of play in the Transit household at the moment. Life here is never totally predictable in any case, but just now we are facing an enormous change and while not exactly running around like headless chickens, DH and I are finding life more than a little stressful at the moment.

The reason for all this is that early next month we shall be leaving the hills to move a couple of miles to a house on the edge of the village down in the valley below us. After health scares for both of us in the past year we realise that perhaps the time has come to live somewhere more accessible and less likely to be snowed-up in winter. 

With the kind help of my burly brother-in-law we're planning to do most of the move ourselves over a period of weeks, just getting in outside assistance for the heaviest furniture. DH is rather looking forward to hiring a van with an electric tailgate to take the smaller stuff!  Even DD and her family are getting in on the act, since they are coming to visit during half-term at the end of October and have offered to help with moving things like books.

So if I become even more noticeable by my absence from the blogosphere over the next few weeks, you know the reason why. It will be a big wrench to leave our beloved hills, but there are compensations. The new house has a stream running along the back of the garden and we’ll have a stretch of river-bank of our very own. Wind in the Willows, here we come…

Image via Google 

A tale of four kittens

Long-time readers of my blog will know that the presence of kittens in the woodshed has become a regular, if not inevitable, feature of our summers in Normandy. However for the first few weeks of our stay it looked as though this year would be an exception. We saw the occasional cat making its way along the hedge or through the long grass, but there wasn’t even a glimpse of a kitten until one afternoon at the beginning of August, when DH called me to come to the window that looks across to the woodshed. 

After that nothing, until the very last Saturday afternoon of our visit when we were busy packing. Out of the blue the mother cat appeared on the doorstep with two of her kittens, who of course had to be fed. They stayed for a little while and then disappeared into their hiding place.

I’m handing over the rest of the tale to DH, who compiled a photo account for his mother which I don’t think can be bettered.

On Sunday four kittens suddenly arrived

and they even came into the house for some milk.

Four combined lappers soon finished the milk

and when they were full of milk they felt sleepy.

Then we noticed that one kitten was missing (look in the van).

Campervan carpets are warm and comfortable

and the view from this end is even better.

Where one kitten can go……..others will follow…….

I wonder how to drive this thing? ……

Masters of all they survey.

Time for a sleep on the verandah.

Meanwhile cattus sattus mattus……….

and Perpetua thought wistfully of how she would love

to take them home with her,

if catnapping weren’t a crime…..