Sunday, January 06, 2008

Happy New Year!

There is no escape...

Sorry my blog has been closed for so long. I really wasn't expecting to be so anti-social for all these months.

Review of 2007
  • The early part was dominated for me by Soul Collage and builders.
    I thoroughly enjoyed the collaging of cards and going to Ireland for Imelda's Soul Collage workshop. I'd spent 3 months solidly making cards before I went. That seems to have exhausted the seam for me.
  • The builders were in because we'd had a very minor leak in our dining room ceiling - they managed to take months to sort this out, needing two rooms completely clear and did a lot more work than I'd imagined was necessary.... I found their presence very difficult - they were all pleasant people it was just the fact that they were in my space and we had all our furniture crammed into the rooms that weren't being worked on - that's what was hard. As Jim works from home and I don't go out to work either there was no escape!
  • Whilst I was in Ireland Jim was bagging the last but three of his Munros and then when we were in Scotland in May he collected those as well. The last one was celebrated with as many of his Munro bagging companions as could make it.
  • The summer was one of the wettest I've experienced (good job we'd had those builders in to fix the earlier leak) and consequently much cooler than the super-hot summer of 2006. My sister lives in Cheltenham where there was flooding - she'd had a minor flood in 2006 so she'd nagged the council into clearing their street's drains after that - rather tellingly their street was okay when many surrounding ones were not. So their house was not flooded. (One of the most cost effective remedies would be to fund drain clearing properly, that and stop building on flood plains of course. Nothing can help you if you are in standing water but many places were only flooded because of the drains not coping.) They still had to cope with no running water for weeks as the whole area's water supply was hit.
  • We took up archery and throughly enjoyed it, even though our club shares its field with chickens.
  • In the autumn one of my brother's had a minor heartattack - he had keyhole surgery and is making a good recovery. He's only 47. This and the earlier death of one of my ex-work colleagues brings home one's own mortality and the need to make of life what one can whilst still alive.

Jim and I have always planned to live in Cornwall sometime. We got married there seven years ago as a way of marking this. We've decided that 2008 is the year to do this. Jim's given up his job and we have some things we want to do to this house before we sell it. We've been living here since '96 and although we have done quite a lot there are a few more things to do before we call it finished.

Then we'll cross our fingers that someone wants to buy it despite the gloom in the papers about the property market, after which we'll be able to move to Cornwall and start the next phase of our lives there.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Welcome back, Caroline! It's so lovely to see you back on the page again.
Your photo art of a walled doorway resonates with me in some way that's difficult for me to describe.
Wishing you and Jim the very best in your upcoming Cornwall adventures!~XOXO

Joy Eliz said...

Wecome Back Caro! Great minds think alike:)

GreenishLady said...

Hi, Caroline,
Lovely to see the blog coming back to life. (Great photo, by the way). I wish you and Jim every good thing in 2008 - including Cornwall. I have to say, having you come over for that workshop was one of my highlights in 2007, too. That whole weekend with you was so great! Let's do it again sometime!

Cream said...

Happy New Year, Caro!
I love Cornwall. Good luck with the move.

Caroline said...

Tinker - thank you for your warm welcome back. I hope you find a chink in the brickwork of your walled in doorway.

Joy Eliz - thank you - I was looking at the Hanged Woman that you did for me today!

Greenishlady - I look forward to it - and if you want to come to Bristol for a visit you'd better pop over soon!

Cream - thank you. That's a lot more encouraging than the window cleaner who on hearing said "oh the graveyard!"

Johnnynorms said...

Big welcome back to blogsville Caro, and a splendid new year to you. I'm a big fan of Cornwall - made it down there four times so far - any idea which bit?

Anonymous said...

Welcome back Caroline!!! (my art blog still isn't back) OH I have wings now ;)

Caroline said...

Hello John - we've not yet got a definite preference - its going to be a matter of where we can afford what we want as much as anything... prices in Cornwall are ridiculously high especially given their average wage...

Anonymous - your wings become you!

Are you ever going to be restarting your art blog?

Anonymous said...

Hhehee thank you :) Have tons of posts for all three blogs but not enough time .... one day the art blog will have its turn again :)I'm a twit now!

Johnnynorms said...

The curse of 'London prices' seems to have spread most everywhere. London prices are still London prices too ofcourse!