Moving house

So we set off to the Farmers' Market. Soon we grind to a halt behind a long line of stationary traffic. What's this? New roadworks? Then it dawns upon us. No, this is the queue for petrol at the garage a bit further along the road. We hastily get out of the queue, pass it & get on our way. We were warned from then on. Every time we came to stationary traffic & there wasn't normally lights etc but there was a petrol station nearby, we pulled out. Every garage we passed had a long line of cars etc spilling out onto the road. Panic buying has really set in. The more the government tries to backtrack on the jerrycan comment, the longer the queues grow. And the strike may not even happen!

Meanwhile today, on a suitably cloudy grey day, our neighbours next door are busily loading up their belongings. They've finally managed to sell their house & are moving to pastures green.

In my experience it always seems to be grey, often positively wet, when you need to move house. Maybe it just seems that way, because I don't think I have ever moved house without some feelings of regret, pangs of happy memories spent in the old home.

I can't say I've ever really regretted our move here. Certainly the move from Arnside has been wholly positive. From an upstairs flat in which I was beginning to feel increasingly imprisoned due to my growing mobility problems, to here, where I can just step out of the door to the car or garden can only be good.

At the time we would have liked to stay in Arnside. We had lived happily there for over 20 years. We came to Morecambe because it was the only place we could afford which we thought wasn't too bad. Since coming here, we have been overwhelmed by the friendliness of the people. Arnside is very hilly & most of the shops have steps in. Here things are much flatter & most of the shops have level entrances. 

Having a garden has been a real boon. Although I can rarely make it to the far end of the back garden - it's 100 metres long! - I can enjoy the colours of the grass, trees & flowers, enjoy the sounds & antics of the birds and other wildlife, without having to venture far from the building. There is an area just to sit out & feel the sun on my face on the rare day it's warm enough for me to want to sit out. The bits of the garden near the house ie the herb garden in the front & the bog garden in the back, I try to keep tidy myself. The rest tends to get left to Al & the Fox. It's wonderful to see the passage of the seasons, the signs of new life in the spring, the glorious colours of autumn. No, the move was good.

At one point, since we moved here & we gained some extra money, we did wonder whether we wouldn't prefer to move over to the other side of Morecambe since we mysteriously seem to have made most of our new friends over there. However, property over there was £100,000+ more expensive (and  generally smaller and/or in need of great renovation), which is a lot of holidays & other treats. Ultimately we concluded we prefer the extra privacy afforded by living that bit further away from friends. 

This is the place for us & we intend to stay until we have to move again. We suspect that will be when one of us dies or we've become too infirm to cope with such a large house & need sheltered accommodation or even a care home. Hopefully that won't be for a long time to come.