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 ...

Speedwell Cavern ...

... 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.

Life on the land ...December ... so far ...

the ups, the downs, the forwards and backwards ...

This is the house that at the end of August we made an offer on that was accepted and to date are still awaiting completion.  It has become a very long process.  We did have a completion date for last Friday (11th) but the vendor couldn't do that date so we moved it to Monday (14th my birthday) but then late Friday were told that it was delayed.

One day, hopefully soon, we will live here.

In the meantime we've continued to enjoy our daily walks during this second lockdown. We've managed to obtain grocery deliveries but as we get closer to Christmas they have become scarce.  I can't order too far ahead since I don't know where we'll be on the delivery date!

As if that wasn't enough ...

  

      on Wednesday last week (9th) we were driving into Market Drayton to collect a set of step ladders so that I can hang curtains in the new house when we'd got the keys on the Monday.  There are temporary traffic lights about a mile or so from Loggerheads and we stopped in the long queue for the lights to change.  

Always when stopped on a road unexpectedly (this time due to the temp traffic lights) George checks his rear view mirror to check that the car behind has seen us.  The A53 just here is straight as a dye ... and the car behind us was still travelling at 60mph ... George shouted 'oh no' ... I looked towards him to see what was wrong ... he put our car in gear to drive up onto the grass verge to get out of the way as there was just enough room between us and the car in front of us ... and ... too late there was that awful 'crump' ... and our heads shot forward and back again.  

The drivers of the three cars got out, unhurt except for whiplashed necks and it was then we realised that our front divers side has caught the rear of the car in front ... there was either not quite enough room to get through or the momentum of the crash had caused us to hit it ... the driver who hit us telling George that he 'didn't see us' ???

What with the uncertainty of a completion date for our move and all that involves, and then this ... what more can go wrong?

The driver of  a mini bus behind the car that hit us stopped and took charge ringing for the police and an ambulance as both myself and the guy who ran into us had neck pain.  The drivers all took photos of the damage and contacted their respective insurance providers.

We were all in shock ... 

The young lady driver of the car in front of us, who was very obviously in shock, and the mini bus driver directed the very heavy traffic around the crash site until the police eventually arrived about 40 minutes later and ensured that all the information required was shared between the three drivers and continued to direct the traffic waiting for the ambulance to arrive.  A tow truck arrived to take away the vehicle behind us and we managed to move our car, under police direction, to a safer place off the road.  Two hours after the crash the ambulance still hadn't arrived ... I was desperate to use a loo and we decided we could wait no longer.  We spoke to the police who advised us to attend A&E as soon as we could and they cancelled the ambulance call out.

Late afternoon our son, who had fortunately moved house closer to us just a week or so ago and was at home at the time, came to collect us and took us to A&E at the Royal Stoke Hospital.  We were triaged and eventually seen by the consultant who confirmed that we had both suffered whiplash in the accident. 

Early the following day George received a phone call from NFU (National Farmers Union) who are the insurers of the driver who hit us.  They confirmed that the driver was 100% culpable for the accident and informed us that if we were in agreement they would handle the whole claim.  We were happy with that as it would save time and energy to deal with just one person, and we informed our own insurance company of our decision.  Within 24 hours of the accident we were informed that George's pride and joy, his Golf GTI was a write off (uneconomical to repair as there may have been damage to the suspension etc), a settlement offer was agreed, the collection of our Golf was arranged for pick-up on Monday morning, a hire car had been arranged for us, that we would receive a call from Vita Health Group to talk through our injuries and suggest, if required, physiotherapy via a link and later another call from NFU to ask if we wished to enter a claim for the injuries.  We were impressed by their efficiency.

Later that day the hire car arrived - a Toyota Corolla Hybrid.

So we now have seven days to find and buy a new (to us) car.

Practically every time we were in George's pride and joy, he would say 'I do love this car'.  He will miss it enormously.

Life on the land ... October and November

A day on the water and discovering the country lanes ...

Late September and we had a magical day on the Shroppie with Margaret and Geoff ... pictures above of us ascending Hack Green Locks near Nantwich ... the weather couldn't have been more perfect ... thank you both.

We see some wonderful sunsets from our kitchen window here in Loggerheads.

We have discovered a few new walks around the country lanes and have been thoroughly enjoyed the change of colour to autumn ...

This walk was on the 3rd November

At one point that day we though we were going to get very wet but fortunately the dark clouds blew over

Sooo dramatic!

Down Lovers Lovers Lane

and home

A new addition to the family on 7th November ... Zelda ... fur baby to our eldest granddaughter Louise and partner Rob.