It’s blowing a gale outside and is definitely the night to sit in front of the fire and have a drink and a chat with a friend. I am here with the fire and the vermut – actually red wine – I can even offer you mince pies…… and hopefully you are here too for the chat? (Thank you Bodhi Chicklet for keeping the glasses full in my absence!)
The room is quite empty now as you can see. I have brought in a garden table and on the top you can see two envelopes full of old postcards which sold on ebay today anda spiral notepad containing everything I need to remember while organising the move
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If you were here I could show you Blue’s new ramp which arrived this morning and which thankfully seems to be all that was promised in the advertisment
Light, strong, wide, non slip and most important of all, acceptable to Blue. It is a Solvit ultralite bought from Easy Animal who have a freephone advice service and I would highly recommend them.
I could also take you outside when the rain stops to show you the cabin we were working on all summer
I’ve been up there today trying to sort out old diaries and deciding which ones to burn. I never thought I would do this but actually I am tired of heaving them around with me and am not sure I would want anyone else to read them. Along the outside wall are a selection of my sculptures. I am amazed at how many there are and how small they seem when put outside.
I went to an auction today to watch some of my things flying out of the room for very low prices – it could be disheartening but I am well beyond the point of caring. All I want to do is get this house empty and I am still fighting with the little stuff which I neither want to keep nor throw away.
I stare at it and wish it would just dissolve. If you were here perhaps you could take it away?
Two very good friends came all the way down to Cornwall from Suffolk last weekend. They even brought their own bed! Both the dogs loved having familiar people staying and spent the nights guarding their room to make sure they too didn’t disappear
But sadly on Sunday they did and so we three are here again, listening to the wind rattling the letterbox and counting the days till next Monday when we set off.
My old house is changing – it still feels like a safe cocoon but the time is coming to let it go for a while and stretch my wings and fly. Think of the swallows who were born this year in my garage – one day they flew around and around the field and then….they climbed higher and higher, set their compass to south and trusted themselves to the air.
Such sweet four legged companions, guarding the sleeping guests as they did. I am glad the ramp sorted itself out. Congratulations on the auction and in being able to let go. I, too, am ready to let go of so much. I am part of a group of women who will do light a fire on the winter solstice to burn what we are ready to let go of. Of course we are burning scraps of paper on which we jot down the things as they come to us. As tempting as it might get, doing it in any other way is frowned upon and quite illegal. You will be happy to hear I saw my acupuncturist today who said she thinks I pneumonia. She gave me a very aggressive treatment and already my sinus congestion is half what it was when I walked in. If I don’t improve dramatically in the next few days I am under strict instructions to head to the clinic for antibiotics. And you know I would come and alleviate you of much of that small stuff, sometimes it’s easier when someone else does the purge for you. Must toddle off to the cub scouts meeting. I am counting the minutes until I can be back under the covers. Thanks for the wine!
Glad the ramp worked….one very important problem solved anyway. Maybe you’ll see some of those same swallows in Granollers!
Lovely photos, great account of getting rid of stuff and preparing to move and strange to think that some of your written memories of Troon as a teenager may be heading for the big bonfire. I stopped keeping diaries after my mother read mine once when I was about 15 or I would still have them, too. But I can still remember the Med, Sandy’s disco, various crushes and worse, Black Sobranie and a host of other things without the written word to help me out (although I admit some of my memories may not be entirely accurate after all this time, all memories are coloured and do not have to be 100% factual!).
This is an important process and I think you are doing marvellously, one step/postcard/action at a time! And what you are doing really is stretching your wings and flying.
Good luck with the last steps and before you know it you will be experiencing the next adventure together with your beloved dogs – the trip to Granollers – and will actually arrive!
Joining you in a not-so-virtual glass of wine today, thanks for sharing.
Cheers, Christine xx
Pearhaps one day I will read your diarys… We can read them together!
Pearhaps only some…
You are very brave, very zen, well done my luve! Gràcies pel vermut!
The diaries….I will definitley keep some. Dear P of course we can read some together although I expect after a few pages you will find them repetitive. but yes an insight into my younger self. Christine – I have kept the one I have from our Troon days. I like those early musings. Unfortunately I had most of my diaries stolen when I was at university so I don’t have all the old ones. Perhaps it was a blessing as I have kept diaries since I was about 8 and if that disgruntled flat mate hadn’t relieved me of some then imagine the huge pile facing me now! (Yes Flora McKewan you know it was you!!!!) The interesting thing about burning stuff is that HUGE doubts arise before you do it, but afterwards, it is fine. Not so much a process of letting go but more a freeing up.Kx