Happy Summer Solstice Everyone! 2017

Good morning everyone!  HAPPY SOLSTICE!

Feels good that the weather is a little cooler doesnt it. 

Ahhh Solstice.  For some it is a little sad, as they think it is the half way point and from here on it is darker days.  Lets not think that.  Lets think it is 6 months to the next solstice, makes it seem AWaaaayyy over there→→→→→→, right?!

What are you up to?  We are off to my friends house to dance our bums off after a BBQ dinner.  The neighbours are joining us dont worry.  (She is one of my Stonehenge Solstice going buddies).

On the 24th we are celebrating with family, there will be lots of seafood (and veggie alternatives), the kids can stay up till they drop asleep on their feet.  We are going in big as it is the weekend (and when my family would normally get together at Michelmas it will be a week day, boo hiss)

Book review will be tomorrow!

Have a lovely day, remember to be 'Sun Safe'.

***************Happy Solstice!****************

Looking at houses is hard work

Please excuse any weirdness on my blog right now.  My blogger account seems to be having a wobbly (thanks Dani for pointing out the broken bits!).  I may have switch to another blogging system as it has been hard work the last few weeks.  I apologise that I havent been reading your blogs and commenting, my blog feeder where I have followed your blog hasnt been working and I havent been getting you up dates.  Sorry about that, please leave a comment if I havent left a message/comment on your blog lately. 

 *Now on to todays post!*

Its a completely different ball game when you are trying to find a house that you are looking at to do up and move up the ladder.  You have to flip your brain to find a house to stay in.  The forever home is elusive it would seem.

My head and heart are still divorced, all I see is a spreadsheet and what it would be worth after.  Its like I need someone to inject me with "fall in love with a house" juice.

(I think the problem is, there arent a lot of house with land in our price range.)

Lots of people I know, say that when they went through the front door of their house, they got the warm and fuzzies.  Yarp, no fuzzies.

Looking for a forever home is really hard work.

(Nice and hot isnt it.  Although we did turn the air con on last night.  You know, for the dogs...  They have been following me around and collapsing on the floor, any tile will do.  Bathroom floor seems to be the favourite right now.)

Todays song

Urgh blogger

I give up I cant get blogger to do invites again.  

Vertical

Thinking outside of the box.  I dont really agree with zoos, but this is really clever.

Thinking about profit

I am trying to think about multiple streams of income for when we move.  (((That is if we get land))).  There are lots of youtubes on this and I am getting lots of inspiration from it.

London my London

London 💔

We need another six books

Chantilly 

Hello!  Hope you are having a good weekend.  If you are joining in with the read along, we now need nominations for the next 6 books.  This gives everyone, the time to find the books in the most cost effective way.

I would like to try and keep it to the classics as much as possible, but I am open to ideas and thoughts.  Do you have a book that I just have to read?  Tell me about it!

And go....

p.s. the handmaid's tale TV series in now on.  I think it is quite good!

Butterflies

I love a bit of Dolly.  Did you know that?

I have butterflies right now.  We are in limbo, half way between this current life and the one in my dreams and minds eye.  My minds eye is vivid in colour, a place where there is never a grey sky and the garden is magically water some how.  :)  You know the type of dream you have, that when you wake you are sad it wasnt real.  

I finish my contract next week.  Then I will be a lady that lunches for some time.  I am a little scared of not having a structured day.  A daily list to keep me going.  I am afraid I will be in a holding pattern, circling, not sure if our dream will come to fruition.  (Eric just glared at me, as in the back ground of writing this I have Dolly Parton youtubes playing.  He is a Shirley Bassey fan, he likes it when I rush about with the vacuum).

We havent seen a house yet, we are going to rent we think.  Sell pretty much everything in the house apart from my books.  They are going to my parents house.  The house is ready, we are waiting for the estate agent and for the photographer to give us a date.  Since when did estate agents use real photographers.  I  am thinking magazine photo shoot!  lol  it will be far from that, dont worry.

Butterflies I tell you.  Huge ones that make me feel sick and giddy at the same time.  Like aliens waiting to burst out.

When I hear this song I think of the {TV series Butterflies}, (that is me dancing with the dogs and throwing dog treats about!!!).  I have had many a cooking disaster like Rea.

I am sure many people who have moved to their small holding or their much anticipated forever home, felt exactly like this.  Scared to let go of the old, embrace the new.  I am sure there will be many frustrations.  I am sure we will buy a house that is a pit like this one was.  I am sure the garden is going to take years to get going and functioning like my grand parents.  I am sure, that I will be frustrated with the 'dreckly', that is employed further west, (I already have to ask my parents when they say a time, is that Devon time or London).  My MIL opperates on Cornish time.  We will get used to it.  We are hoping for a time of adjustment, where we slow down a little.

I am sure I will want to rush making any house our own.  I am sure we will want to rip the bathroom out as soon as we move in.  I am sure the dogs will be out of sorts.  I am sure I will be out of sorts.  I am sure I will need to get water butts and underground rain water storage in as soon as we can.  I am sure we will need to get the veggie garden up and running as soon as we can, even if it is just marking it all out.  I am sure that no matter what, if there is a garage it will leak.  I am sure that if we get a house with oil heating, there will be no oil in the tank.  I am sure that I will have problems with my food storage area, no where has the pantry of my dreams (it looks like a bunker!).  I am sure that there will be a hole in the fence that one of the dogs will find.  I am sure, we will not like at least one neighbour, who on first meeting us, will slag off the last owner and say something like "I hope you arent going to be like the last owner and not fix the wall where it is falling down, my in laws always comment on how unsightly it is", which will make me want to scream in their face as the removal men will be bustling by and they are getting an eyeful of the contents of our house.  I am sure the removal men will drop something like my dining table or my only heirloom my Grans cupboard.

I am sure we will have a hard time sorting out the council tax, the water board (putting a metre in), the oil company or the gas company.  I am sure, on the day we move in we will find that one of the doors doesnt lock or a window doesnt latch properly.  I am sure once everyone has gone and we are alone.  I will quietly cry in the toilet, with hot, stinging tears of "what the hell have we done".

What I am sure of, is the feeling that we will be free.  Like a long held breath under water, where you are trying hard to hold it in as long as you can and it starts to burn a little.  Letting it go of that feeling will be a little giddy at first, then the spreadsheets will come out and we will work.  Work hard to make it work.  Just like if we cashed it all in and moved to France, it will be hard to come back from it financially.  (houses are cheaper down there, if houses all across the country appreciate at 10%, if we buy one for 400, we will increase by 40, where as a 700 house up here will make 70.  The gap every year will be larger and larger.)  We are in it for the long haul.  No going back.

The sea is calling me, a new life beckons.  Lets hope it is as good as the dream.

I will leave you with a lovely duet of Dolly and Miley Cyrus.

p.s. if you want to see what my current house looks like.  Leave me a comment with the email you use to sign in to blogger.  I wont publish it. I will add the email to my private viewers list.  I will give you warning again as my blog will go private whilst they are up.  But I am thinking what about Tuesday?  Ok.  there we go.  Todays post. *dances out the room to throw cornflakes about*.  (I am actually off to make the dogs dinners.  The glamour never stops in this house.  All go!)