Back from the boxes

I canit believe it's so long since I have been here! Moving house seems to take forever. Firstly there's the packing and the clutter clearing and the throwing out; then the moving itself; and then the unpacking, clutter clearing and throwing out. No matter how much stuff you let go of in the packing process there is always more that has to go when you unpack. Things that have no home in the new place, things that you thought you wanted and put in a box but then wonder why you kept when they come out of it. Things that you discover don't go with the new decor and things that discover don't work - like the hover mower that I hadn't used for yonks, which doesn't cut the grass because two blades are missing and the other one is snapped in half! Why didn't I think to look at that when I was on a tip run?

This move seemed to take doubly long because I had my temporary lodger still with me. My friend M had been staying with me for the last 6 months. She had a superb opportunity to move to Herefordshire but had to work out her notice, so I've had her, some of her stuff and her large dog camping out in my spare room. Which meant that the things I wanted to store in the spare room were littered about other rooms while waiting for her to vacate. Last weekend we took her, her stuff and the large dog to her new home. Her horse wouldn't go in the trailer so its still here (though not in my spare room, thank goodness) until she finds an alternative. I have visions of her leading horse down the M5. I don't seem to have stopped moving things, people or animals for over a month!

But now, finally, it's done. Everything bar one box of magazines is in its home - or the spare room. And as I sit here in my writing room, enveloped by my big comfy chair that I've had since I was a student (and which has followed me to every home since); tapping away laptop on my lap, the summer breeze (rain-less for once) wafting in the open french doors, at last I have a sense of peace, a sense of homecoming. Phewwww!