I am sorry for the lapse in time since my last blog. No excuse, other than that there were no words in my head to write with......but here I am, and the good news is that Lester has made the trip down to SW France to retrieve our personal possessions, and then made it back to Shropshire with no bumps or knocks to either himself or the van. 2000 miles, in three days, leaving at 6am on Thursday and getting back 10pm Saturday, with the van loaded with boxes, instruments, the lawnmower, and some flat packed furniture. The 'posh' furniture stayed at the farm, to be sold with the house. There is no room for it in our new life.
I think Lester is a hero. Apart from our clothes, it was mostly my crafting equipment which he brought back, plus my collection of notebooks of writings, and camera related equipment. It is good to have it back. I feel less like having half of me in England and half of me still in France. It was a very divided feeling.
Meanwhile, we are going through another series of adjustments as we leave go of Labartere, our smallholding in SW France, which has sort of faded from our life now that Lester has made the trip. I find it amazing how we keep adjusting to all the ups and downs of 2020, although we are feeling worn out with all the effort it has taken. We need some quiet time now to repair ourselves, before we start searching for our own house. Even though the cottage is a very nice place to be staying in, we are always aware that it belongs to somebody else.
......meanwhile, I am making a mess everywhere! There are partly unpacked boxes in the garage, with just four more to open so I can investigate there contents. When I packed them back in March, it was necessary to try and keep the boxes at a minimum because of having to load them into a van for transport. So it was higgledy piggledy packing I did, with things put here and there as room in the boxes became available. Therefore there is no order. So........ I have to unpack them here, sort out what we need and what can be left in the boxes for our next move, which then have to be resealed in case little living things decide to cosy up for the winter in them.
Only one large dustbin bag, filled with cushions, was found to be a possible hotel for larger 'little' living things (rats.....the evidence being the size of their toilet leavings). A peek inside the dustbin bag, .....a very quick closure of the same bag, ......and a quick exit outside of the garage for the bag in case any French rats were wanting to rehome themselves.....better to have them outside rather than enjoying the comfort of the boxes.
So..... the garage is full of unpacked boxes, and the house has bits and pieces all over it as I rehome things, in particular there is a traffic jam at the foot of the stairs as most of the things needing rehoming is my stuff. Since the stairs and me are new to each other, ( we lived on the ground floor for thirteen years so my legs forgot how to 'do' stairs) the effort of taking the stuff up the stairs is taking a time. I have put the things in plastic supermarket bags for ease of transport. There are quite a few bags at the foot of the stairs. It might take a time to get the backlog done with, the amount of bags going up the stairs being determined by the number of loo runs I do. We have an upstairs loo. One of the requirements for our next house is that it must have a downstairs loo. Although it is fair to say that my legs have benefitted from the exercise.
Signing off for now,
Vx
