Saturday 26 December 2020

Life on the Land ... Christmas continued ...

Christmas Eve ...
Sunrise at 8:25 from the back garden ...
and sunset at 15:40 also from the back garden
Christmas Day ...
08:10 ... wow!

It's going to be a good day ...
- 6c ... cold and frosty!
We had such a laugh with these two bulls yesterday when a man was trying to encourage them out of the field ... the big brown was having none of it and faced the man down.  It took about half an hour to persuade them which he did in the end by moving the smaller bull and the other eventually followed.
Out for a walk ...
We didn't realise that there was a footpath a very short distance from out house so instead of walking the village we turned down here ... I'll let the pictures lead you ...
see the windmill?
That's our home the left hand semi on the left above



On the way home now ...
Not noticed the bus stop before opposite the footpath we took ... must investigate where the busses go from here
When we got back to our street a group of families had got together to take their Christmas day walk with the children and dogs ... it was a pity that we'd just returned ... 
... we think we'll love living here.
Evening ...
I rushed out into the garden to take this sunset picture of the windmill ...
and then I turned around and saw this (above) over the shed roof ... I ran upstairs for a better view ...

What a perfect day it's been.

Thursday 24 December 2020

Life on the land ... Christmas ...

 To all my readers everywhere ... family ... friends ... 
boaters and non-boaters


From our home to yours, wherever you are ...
George and I wish to you all ...
A Very Merry Christmas
and a healthy,  New Year.

Christmas 2020 is going to be very different for many people and our hearts go out to those spending the holiday on their own and those who are not able to be with their family at this time and especially those with no home to be in.

Stay safe, observe the rules and let's make 2021 a better time to be living wherever you are.

Wednesday 23 December 2020

Life on the land ...

... and we're in! ... 

A few hours after publishing my last blog post on Friday 11th December we heard from our solicitor that we had a moving date ... on Monday 14th (my birthday, in case you didn't know), crikey it was all go from then on packing up all the bits we were still using, food, clothing and bedding etc.  

All stop at about 4pm when we had another call from our solicitor to say that there was a problem at the vendor's end and that our Monday move was postponed!  The move could be back on on Wednesday, or Friday or next Monday (21st!!). Will anything go right with this move we wonder.

On Saturday George was already looking for another car.  

He found a possible on Auto-Trader and on Saturday we travelled to Chesterfield in the hire car to take a look.  It wasn't in the condition that it looked on the advert so that was a no no.  A few minutes after starting to head back to Loggerheads our son rang us and said he'd seen a car he thought his Dad might like for sale in Rotherham and as it was only half an hour from where we were we turned around and found the car we've bought.  It's a Volvo C30R Sport 2009 with very low milage for its age.  It will be serviced, MOT'd and valeted ready for us to collect the following Friday. 

On the way back entered 'shortest' route into the satnav and the journey was amazing ... although it may have been the shortest it was definitely not the quickest ... 

It took us through the Derbyshire Dales ...

through forests ...
and rocky outcrops ... where we must have left Derbyshire for a while ...
because here we are entering it again!
Winding roads ...
amazing hills ... and what's that ...
... deep valleys ...
We realised that the road we were travelling would take us through Buxton so a quick phone call to our eldest granddaughter and we popped in for a cuppa and a bit of lunch ... lovely to see them especially when not planned.

On the Sunday we had some family news ... another new fur-baby has arrived ... this time to two of our Scottish granddaughters ...
Welcome to Nugget a Jackie-Bichon (Jack Russel/Bichon Frise)

Isn't she adorable - lots of fun in that little lady!

We waited impatiently over the remainder of the weekend and late afternoon on my birthday a call came through ... the move may very well happen tomorrow ... but don't do anything yet, we'll let you know.

Finally at 10:30am we had the go, go, go ... but ... the vendor was receiving the same information and because of the uncertainty they had only booked a van provisionally so they then had to collect the van and then move out.  And a magnificent effort that was!

At 4pm we could collect the keys and the house was ours at last so with a car full of 'stuff' we took possession in the dark.  


The first load arrives at the house on Wednesday 15th  ...   Our thanks go to our Buxton granddaughter's partner Rob and Zelda for all the humping and dumping of our belongings between our Loggerhead's bungalow and our little home of our own which took all day ... and that's Zelda in the picture above ... she was helping too (not!).

Things are now a little more sorted here are a few pictures of around our new home ...
Our garden is this side of the fence and we have cows on the other side today!
Also from the garden fence this is the start of sunset on Wednesday 16th at 10 minutes to 4
Our first sit-down meal ... a take-away from Audlem's Village Chippy - scampi and chips ... mmmm.
Sunset rise on Thursday 17th at 08:30 at the front of the house ...
and a rainbow at the back an hour later.
Morning sun on the sail-less windmill from the kitchen window on the 19th ...
and frost on the on shed and the field out the back.
and yesterday morning a murmuration of starling came ...
to feast in the field.

What an amazing place we're going to live in on the land and we are happy with it.