Sunshine again!

Another beautiful, sunny day, full of twittering birds, and I'm still coming to terms with the fact that I'm not just here on holiday this time! I look around at all the work there is to do in the house, and can't decide what to do first - the last 2 weeks have just seen me finding my feet, and unpacking some of the boxes, and shuffling stuff around from one room to another. On Saturday evening, a friend is having a 'Welcome to France' gathering for me. No doubt there will be much fun had by all, and perhaps I will really feel like I am here to stay then. The neighbours still ask me when James will be back again. Who knows, I tell them, when he feels like leaving Greece, I guess!

Here at last!

It' s nearly 2 weeks since we arrived here. The sun has been shining for the whole of the past week. The birds are being cheeky in the garden, coming almost up to the door, Basil has found his way over to the barn across the orchard, and the nights are full of stars, with no trace of light pollution to diminish them! Went for a walk in the sunshine with friends on Sunday afternoon, and we were sitting outside drinking tea until almost 6pm. Saw a pair of buzzards drifting up on the thermals the other afternoon - nobody around but me. The air is so clean, and the noise and dirt of Sheffield are far from my thoughts. That's why I came here!

Who needs Hertz when you've got friends with hippy buses?!

It's 10.30pm and the house is nearly empty! Most of my stuff is packed into an old Mercedes house bus belonging to a friend. Basil is anxious and so am I. I've just said a sad goodbye to one of my closest friends, my neighbour, Matej. Hard to believe we just shared our last bottle of red wine in my kitchen. Suddenly, I feel sad about leaving my friends behind. what am I doing? What awaits me there, apart from quiet nights in alone with the cat and no TV, and, for the forseeable future, no internet. I know from experience, how easy it is to cling to the old, familiar things before embarking into the unknown; suddenly there is good to be found in all those places and situations that seemed before to be undesirable. Fear and doubt drives us to cling to what we don't really want. When I was packing, I found a note an Argentinian woman had written me about 10 years ago when I was there, traveling around. It seemed very appropriate, at the time she gave it to me, and also,the other day when I rediscovered it. I can't remember the exact words now, and can't check because it is packed in a box - something like 'every yesterday is a memory, every tomorrow a future. Make every memory one of happiness, and every tomorrow one of hope' In 12 hours, we will be on our way to a bright future, where each sunrise over the orchard never fails to fill me with wonder and hope....

Setback before even starting...

Sunday morning, and this should be departure day. The vans should be loaded, 4 friends and cat should be ready to leave soon, but instead everything is in limbo. Unbelievable but true, yesterday, 40 mins before we were due to collect the hire van for moving my stuff, Hertz rang to say the van was 'broken'. All they had to offer us instead was something less than half the size.....much frantic rushing around, complaining and stress and distress later, and nothing was resolved, because all the van hire companies shut down at midday on Saturday until Monday at nine. A major blip, but not a complete disaster. The ferry people were very sympathetic and have let me put the bookings on indefinite hold. There is probably a solution just around the corner, and, hopefully, I will arrive next week sometime to find the new windows and shutters fitted at the front of the house, and flowers in the garden!

Corrections!!

I've just looked back at my last entry and realised that I got the date I saw my house wrong! Maybe I'm living in a time-warp or was a bit confused when I wrote that entry. I first saw that house in January 2006, paid for it in the Easter that same year, and spent the whole of that following summer with my friend James there. It was a very difficult time, full of highs and lows. One day, I was upstairs building a stud wall, whilst downstairs, he was demolishing some of the existing ones. There were times when I wondered what I was doing - it wasn't like I was rich enough to afford 2 houses! At times I wanted to run away and escape from the chaos I seemed to have brought upon myself, but I stuck it out, and by the end of the summer, I was fully committed to my new house. Perhaps I was seduced by all the flowers laid daily at my door(see pics), or maybe it was the pitch black nights, unpolluted by street lights, or the sound of birds in the morning, and the view of the orchard from my bedroon window.
Summer 2007 was a turning point in my life: 2 weeks into my 10 week stay in the house, I couldn't imagine not being there all the time and felt I would be happier there; I decided to give up my job and house in Sheffield and move to Ménéac, and so, 2 days before I leave Sheffield and my home of 20+ years behind, I'm hoping that feeling continues. As I sit here in what has been my favorite room for the last few years, I look around at my life here, stashed in boxes, and I know my friends are behind me in my decision. And I am still trusting in my mum to have chosen wisely for me!

it's really happening!

December 17th 2007

In only a few weeks I leave my Sheffield house (and home of over 20 years) behind me, and move over the channel to Brittany. I first saw my house there, in the flesh, nearly two years ago, on the 12th January 2005, just over one year after my mum died.
A few friends have said I'm brave, others that they are jealous, but I trust my leap of faith to my mum, because it was she who told me to turn my world 'upside down'. So it's to her that I dedicate this blog.
Watch this space.........