It All Started When …

A collection of circumstances set off the catalyst for our move earlier this year, seeing us depart from our life as townies and set up home in a more rural village setting.

Said circumstances are far too long and boring to relate, but the details of our new life, and what we hope to achieve, make fitting tales for a new blog. So here I am with my first post on the subject.

I’ve lived in a town setting all my life and whilst I’ve enjoyed country holidays and staying in my beloved static caravan in a rural part of East Anglia, had never really contemplated what a full-time country life would entail.

This summer we not only made the move to a village surrounded by countryside, but decided to renovate a former ice cream chime workshop (further back in time a coal wharf), with the aim of turning it into a three-bedroom bungalow. How straightforward it sounds said like that! But as we have already discovered, things are not as easy in reality, with plans changing on a daily basis, even though our eventual aim remains the same.

Our first, and most obvious, thought was to move afore-mentioned caravan on-site, so that we could live in it quite happily whilst we tackled the business of ‘doing up’ the property. Unfortunately, our calculations about logistics were a bit awry (or perhaps we just exercised plain, blind optimism), and we discovered that the caravan would just not fit down the narrow, slightly bendy lane to its plot. So we’ve had to abandon all thoughts of that one and plump for a sort of semi-camping existence in what I can only currently describe as a glorified shed!

OK, so it does have plumbing and electricity, but we have to go to my mother-in-law’s for a shower, and our cooking facilities consist of a microwave, two camping stoves and a health grill (sounds like an interesting title for an alternative cookery programme). Our ‘bedrooms’ are just small areas constructed using tarpaulin. Are you getting the picture?

Somehow we aim to work round all this chaos and eventually be the owners of a very nice little home. So watch this space …

Of course, alongside all of this we have to adapt to country and village life, which is proving quite an enlightening experience. We have the good fortune to be situated right on the riverbank, so have traded cars whizzing past our window, for the more tranquil passing of boats and swans. The only problem I’ve found is that I’m constantly distracted by the wonder of my new view – the river, the fields, the trees and the hills in the background. I presume the novelty of all this will diminish in time, or maybe not!

And as for the village? More about that in my next post.

You can also still read my original blog www.shoppersjoy.blogspot.co.uk