Thursday, 3 December 2020

Life on the land ...

 August 2020

We moved into our rented bungalow in Loggerheads (North Staffordshire)  the 4th of August
It's a neat little bungalow and will manage us for the time being until we can buy our own house

It has two bedrooms, one double above

a single one, bathroom
and of course a kitchen - we were waiting for a cooker to arrive!
No photo's of the living room as the carpet in there was being cleaned.

Our first delivery directly to us for over 13 years arrived on the 5th, flowers and a card from Sue and Vic - what a lovely surprise that was!

With lockdown being eased we used took some time out to visit family - they are actually 'local' to us now!  We are overjoyed!





There's a lane behind our house so of course we had to explore ... 








The lane was quite steep and led to an open green area near a newish housing estate.




and a children's play area currently closed due to Coronavirus ...




a lovely space to be used during the summer except of course no one can use it this year.

We had some lovely warm sunshine which unfortunately we couldn't make use of as the lawned are outside the bungalow are too steep to sit out on ... and then the weather broke ...

12th August at 9pm we had the mother of all thunder storms - put your sound on to hear and see what it was like!


Until the 14th August we slept on the mattress from Still Rockin' on the floor so we were so excited to take this delivery and start to build - a good night's sleep ensued!


We have tentatively started to look at houses/bungalows for sale and saw on in Cheswardine that might suit us.  We were early for the appointment so popped into the parish church for a look see whilst we waited - very nice.  The bungalow that we looked at was ok but had an extremely small rear garden - not for us then!
21st August saw us back at Thames and Kennett marina to give Still Rockin' a dust down - lots of cobwebs and spiders to be removed!


An empty boat!
30th August and we're still looking for a property ... 
we saw this one ... it's near Audlem ... and we like it.  
An offer was made and accepted and we've been waiting for the process to be completed ever since!

Of course whilst there we had to take in the Shroppie and enjoyed a towpath walk ...
and a cup of socially distanced coffee at the Shroppie Fly - outside of course ... waiter service only!

One last photo - a zoomed picture taken from the kitchen window looking towards Wales - not too shabby that!


11 comments:

Vallypee said...

Thank you so much for this lovely update, Carol. Your little bungalow looks very cosy, but I can well imagine that you want your own home. I hope your sale comes/goes through and that Still Rockin sells soon. I'm guessing Corona has put paid to many potential sales, but here's hoping the new year will put everything straight again. I love the photos and it all look so nice. My brother and his wife life next to the Shroppie, I think. I can never remember the name of the place, but I know they keep their narrowboat on a mooring very near their house. I'll look it up. I'm now going to look up where you are too!

Vallypee said...

I've found it. They live in Wheaton Aston, so 20 miles from Loggerheads and about 30 from Audlem.

Carol said...

Thanks for your comments Val. We love Wheaton Aston area, in fact we love the whole of this area around the Shroppie and are looking forward to being able to visit all our favourite boating places during the summer next year when vaccinations have been given to everyone, Until then we'll keep ourselves to ourselves and get into our new home asap.

Pip said...

You aren't far from us now, in Whitchurch. Maybe when all this is over we can come and meet up with you for lunch in the Shroppie Fly. It would be lovely to see you again. If you join the bowling club we may even play against you!
love Pip & Roger - ex NB Windsong.

Nev Wells said...

Fingers crossed for the new home.... looks lovely and near Audlem is near a canal so even better. Hopefully you'll come and visit Percy when as you say we are all vaccinated up....

So you in Audlem and Halfie in Market Drayton - I think I may be close to getting to the Middlewich branch without getting off the boat - know anyone near Hack Green ?

Kath said...

So nice to hear that you are happy and (nearly) settled. It must be quite strange for you after all those years of boating. It’s certainly a nice area to live in.
Look after yourselves and stay safe.
Kath (nb Herbie)

Carol said...

Thanks for the comment Pip and Roger, that's certainly something to look forward to.

Carol said...

Hi Nev, yes you will definitely get help with those locks. I didn't realise that Half was in MD.

Carol said...

Thanks for your comments Kath, we're really looking forward to settling into our little house close to the canal. Hope to see you both at some point. Hope you're both well as we are. x

Alf said...

As you will be near Audlem have you found "Audlem Online" ? (https://www.audlem.org/) A useful resource when we were in the area.

Carol said...

Thanks for your comment Alf. No I haven't seen Audlem Online, but I will now! Thank you.