We are, finally, on the 'phone! But there is a problem at the exchange, an engineer has been reassigned and we are assured of Internet connection by 3rd February. My frustration is enormous; I love my iPhone but it is not easy to blog on its tiny screen and I've just paid nearly £4 for two of the children to have a drink and crisps in the pub so I can use the free wi-fi.
Still, I have been out running on Brownsey Moor and seen my footprints in the desolate and untouched snow, days after it fell. I have been caving with the children and our new friend ( head of local mountain rescue so I was in safe hands) and seen our footprints in the silty mud 60feet underground. Opportunities we are grasping and loving!
Wednesday, 30 January 2013
Friday, 25 January 2013
Another life
I have been so looking forward to blogging but I only get 30 minutes on the library computer and I have 10 left and still got some financial stuff to do!
I have so much to say about our amazing poetry tea yesterday. We set off on foot up the hill-side and along the barf (a wide, flat stretch of grazing land) to arrive at our friend's house which he has rebuilt from derelict, powered by gas lamps, a solar panel and a small wind turbine. We had fresh raisin bread, apple cake, pancakes and a long and happy afternoon of laughter, anecdotes, poetry and good food.
Our host is a man of the kind of wisdom born from a life of many experiences and I have been left with much to ponder regarding goals, schedules, savings and time..
BT are due on Monday! Hopefully we will have a phone and maybe even internet at home!!
I have so much to say about our amazing poetry tea yesterday. We set off on foot up the hill-side and along the barf (a wide, flat stretch of grazing land) to arrive at our friend's house which he has rebuilt from derelict, powered by gas lamps, a solar panel and a small wind turbine. We had fresh raisin bread, apple cake, pancakes and a long and happy afternoon of laughter, anecdotes, poetry and good food.
Our host is a man of the kind of wisdom born from a life of many experiences and I have been left with much to ponder regarding goals, schedules, savings and time..
BT are due on Monday! Hopefully we will have a phone and maybe even internet at home!!
Wednesday, 23 January 2013
Peace?
And it's still so busy! I am being forced to look long and hard at my choices and my reactions to figure out why, right now, life feels more, not less, busy that it ever did in South West London.
Is it really to do with BT failing to connect us last week? It does feel that every 'phone call becomes an issue as I have to walk down the road and stand in the snow to get a connection. Simple jobs like a quick transfer of money build up until I find the time to sit, as I am doing now, in a pub with free wi-fi, and then I rattle through the list watching the minutes slip away. On the other hand, no doubt I get those jobs done more quickly and I am not distracted by the computer at home.
Is it really to do with the snow? It did feel last week that the snow made everything harder, not least planning my first trip back south with the children to do my first weekend of private tuition. It was particularly important that I fulfilled these commitments to demonstrate that this ideas of living in the Dales and working in Sunbury was achievable. It was. Despite the snow all week and the car breaking down twice in one journey! But the snow does make it all so beautiful, the whole Dale a smooth white and fresh, untouched drifts to jump in three days after it first fell and the children free to head out of the back of the house and play on the hill-side and build a snowman taller than they are!
Is it really to do with it all still being so new? We have had the electrician round three times, the builder, the plumber and the chimney-sweep. Expensive decisions need to be made about installing showers, stoves and moving gas bottles. We are still getting used to heating the house, finding things in their new homes and remembering to feed the chickens. However, we have a beautitiful home in a breath-taking location and my morning run from my front door is in an area of out-standing natural beauty.
Is it me? Too easily distracted, too high expectations, just too stressy? I am reminded that I take myself with me wherever I go and that weeding out the busy-ness and stress starts inside with some tough choices about what really mattter, what I ultimately choose to put first. And I will continue with my journey towards and stiller, quieter, more peaceful life.
Is it really to do with BT failing to connect us last week? It does feel that every 'phone call becomes an issue as I have to walk down the road and stand in the snow to get a connection. Simple jobs like a quick transfer of money build up until I find the time to sit, as I am doing now, in a pub with free wi-fi, and then I rattle through the list watching the minutes slip away. On the other hand, no doubt I get those jobs done more quickly and I am not distracted by the computer at home.
Is it really to do with the snow? It did feel last week that the snow made everything harder, not least planning my first trip back south with the children to do my first weekend of private tuition. It was particularly important that I fulfilled these commitments to demonstrate that this ideas of living in the Dales and working in Sunbury was achievable. It was. Despite the snow all week and the car breaking down twice in one journey! But the snow does make it all so beautiful, the whole Dale a smooth white and fresh, untouched drifts to jump in three days after it first fell and the children free to head out of the back of the house and play on the hill-side and build a snowman taller than they are!
Is it really to do with it all still being so new? We have had the electrician round three times, the builder, the plumber and the chimney-sweep. Expensive decisions need to be made about installing showers, stoves and moving gas bottles. We are still getting used to heating the house, finding things in their new homes and remembering to feed the chickens. However, we have a beautitiful home in a breath-taking location and my morning run from my front door is in an area of out-standing natural beauty.
Is it me? Too easily distracted, too high expectations, just too stressy? I am reminded that I take myself with me wherever I go and that weeding out the busy-ness and stress starts inside with some tough choices about what really mattter, what I ultimately choose to put first. And I will continue with my journey towards and stiller, quieter, more peaceful life.
Monday, 21 January 2013
No BT
We still have no communication! No-one arrived last Wednesday and we have been told that they won't come until mid-February! Shocking service!
We're all well and good though: successful first trip back to London, despite the weather, and now home and enjoying the beautiful snow. Three chickens are enjoying freedom from a battery farm in our "garth" (a walled enclosure) and the children are enjoying dance and football and are about to start drama (one each). All good!
We're all well and good though: successful first trip back to London, despite the weather, and now home and enjoying the beautiful snow. Three chickens are enjoying freedom from a battery farm in our "garth" (a walled enclosure) and the children are enjoying dance and football and are about to start drama (one each). All good!
Monday, 14 January 2013
Get busy
"When we have no project to finish, no friend to visit, no book to read, no television to watch or no record to play, and when we are left all alone by ourselves we are brought so close to revelation of our basic human aloneness and are so afraid of experiencing an all-pervasive sense of lonlieness that we will do anything to get busy again and continue the game which makes us believe that everything is fine after all"
Henri Nouwen, Reaching Out
Friday, 11 January 2013
Schola
"The first task of any school should be to protect its privilege of offering free time - the Latin word schola means free time - to understand ourselves and our world a little better."
Henri Nouwen, Reaching Out
Wednesday, 9 January 2013
Home
Without internet connection I have scheduled a few posts. I found this in my drafts, originally dated March 2011. I don't know why it struck me as worth publishing nearly 2 years ago, but as we settle into our new home and new life, it seems just right for today:
Home is not where you live but where they understand you.
CHRISTIAN MORGENSTERN (1871-1914)
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