What a difference a year makes!
This time last year we were probably sitting in Littlebourne watching the birds searching in the snow for food. Matthew was very busy then ferrying nurses and health workers around in the Council's Landrover due to a shortage of vehicles that could manage the hazardous road conditions. This year we are sitting in Hazelbury Bryan watching Blossom, a pony, in the paddock at the bottom of our garden eating grass in the sunshine. Matthew is out and about in his own car surveying roofs in the surrounding counties for Save Energy – a company that installs PV units.
Other changes include the birth of our grandson Toby at the beginning of February, house hunting in Dorset in March, selling our old house and buying a new one in April, moving in July, Matthew handing in his notice after 39 years at Canterbury City Council in August, Lizzie moving in September (and changing boyfriends), beginning generating our own electricity in October and Matthew started work with Save Energy. Today (in December) Tim has handed his notice in at Hampshire County Council because he is starting training as a train driver for First Great Western in February (he has done well as only 1 applicant in 300 is taken on).
Now the year in more detail.
Around Christmas last year, Matthew was given the nod that his request to semi retire by going part time working alternate weeks had a very good chance of being granted from 1st April. This spurred him on to get all those little DIY jobs finished around the house and garden so that he could go bird watching and walking later in the year but things didn’t quite happen that way!
For something to do on those long winter evenings we got into the habit of searching through the property websites looking for our dream house to retire to some day. Dangerous, because in February we found a modern house in a village in North Dorset that seemed to meet nearly all our requirements. One thing led to another and we worked out an idea of perhaps relocating to Dorset and Matthew taking digs in Canterbury for a limited period. Unfortunately we couldn't view the house immediately as we had booked a week away in Jersey.
The trip to Jersey was interesting, a funny mixture of England and France, of countryside and high finance. We flew over from Southampton and stayed in a dusty B&B in St Helier. Using the excellent buses we travelled around the island walking in the countryside, along the cliff tops and on the beaches, taking in some of the visitor attractions that were open in February – the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, the War Tunnels and German coastal fortifications. The weather was rather chilly but we wrapped up well. We flew back to Southampton to find the car wasn’t working properly, something wrong with the air conditioning so that it wouldn’t clear the windows. We managed to get taken home on a recovery truck as it was rather dangerous to drive.
Whilst we were away we prepared a plan of action for buying the house we had seen on the web.
When we started the process we found that we had to put our house on the market before the estate agent would let us view the property we were interested in. Luckily the house and garden in Littlebourne were pretty immaculate after Matthew’s hard work so that it looked very good in the estate agent’s photographs – especially compared to other overpriced houses in the area. We came down to Dorset for a long weekend at the end of March and visited four houses we had short listed for viewing. We loved the area - quiet and rural but plenty going on in the village and surrounding area. The house we had first seen was the best, needing some work done but that was reflected in the price. It was built about 15 years ago and whilst it was structurally sound it was in need of redecoration and modernisation throughout - generally untidy and tatty around the edges, blown double glazing units, dark wood kitchen units etc. but nothing we couldn't cope with.
We sold our old house to the second couple that saw it on the Sunday after it went in the newspaper on the Thursday at the beginning of April. They were a very pleasant couple with two boisterous boys under seven, just the sort of people that should live in that house. The sale went through very easily as it was a very short chain - they were moving out of a school house in Sussex and the woman we were buying from was moving into an empty house in Wales.
We had a week's holiday in Devon before we moved, a chance to recharge our batteries before the move. We took the opportunity to leave the caravan in storage in Dorset on the way home. We also popped in to have a third look at the house, having visited it with Tim & Bekki and Lizzie at the end of April for their opinion, and to sort out the final moving details.
We couldn’t believe our luck when the move went like a dream. We paid the extra to have the removal company pack our stuff which was well worth it. The four men arrived on Monday morning and had the house all packed up by the end of the day except for some essentials required overnight. Sarah left at the crack of dawn next morning to drive down to Dorset stopping off for breakfast at Tim & Bekki's place in Hampshire. The two vans left Kent mid morning and Matthew followed on towing Sarah's trailer filled with her gardening equipment. Tim and Sarah were giving the house a good clean when he arrived just after lunch and we continued vacuuming, dusting and scrubbing until vans arrived mid afternoon. The two men stayed with us until late evening unloading the vans. The art of a painless move is definitely to get someone else to do the packing, to have everything marked up with where it is going and to have a plan of where the main items of furniture are going. We then had the task of unpacking the boxes which we achieved, much to everyone’s surprise, by the end of the second week.
Since then we have had a number of improvements made to the house – installed a wood burning stove, put in new double glazed units and doors throughout the house, put photovoltaic panels on the roof (we have generated just over 300kW since they were installed at he beginning of October), Sarah has been sorting out the garden and Matthew has started redecorating and rejuvenating the house. After Christmas we are having new units and appliances fitted in the kitchen and utility room so it will be chaos for a few weeks.
Two weeks after the move Matthew started back at work, working one week in Canterbury and then having a week at home. He managed to get a room in a house in Canterbury with the idea of eating in the council's canteen at lunchtime. Unfortunately they closed the canteen just as he started back. Lizzie thought he would be able to stick this arrangement for three months but in the end he only lasted a month. After one particularly long journey from Kent to Dorset after a tiring week at work he decided he had had enough and gave in his two month' notice at the end of August. In the meantime Sarah had managed to find Matthew another job with the company that fitted the PV panels on our roof - one of the biggest companies in the south. The job involves carrying out roof surveys and designing the layout of the panels being fitted. However things have got a bit chaotic since the government changed the feed in tariff rates from 12/12/2011 and the company had to get all the systems in their order book installed by that date. In November Matthew carried out 16 surveys in Wiltshire, Somerset and Dorset and clocked up over a thousand miles in his car.
But after all this excitement we think that little Toby is the highlight of our year. It sounds corny but he is such an engaging little lad - even if he has been troublesome one of his cute little smiles will immediately disarm you. Born by caesarean section (because of this large head) he weighed over 9lbs and has grown rapidly ever since. It has been wonderful seeing his progress and now that we are living much closer we are able to see him more often. We went visiting yesterday leaving home at 8.45 and arriving on their doorstep at 10 am. Coming home took a bit longer because it was dark and the traffic was heavier.
Tim is changing his job because his work at Hampshire County Council was getting more and more stressful. There was no suitable solution in sight so he is going for a complete career change and will start training as a train driver with First Great Western at the beginning of February. Is this the fulfilment of a childhood ambition? Bekki's maternity leave has come to an end and she will be going back to work part time in the new year.
Lizzie is now on the second and last year of her two year long horticulture diploma course at RHS Wisley and is enjoying the physical side of the job. She is also doing very well on the academic side of things getting very good marks in the end of year practical examination. As with everything there are little niggles the biggest being an influx of noisy first year students in the rooms above her at the halls of residence. In the summer she split up with her fiancé David, who is now working at the Edinburgh Botanic Gardens, and now has a new boyfriend Russell.
We thought that life in deepest darkest Dorset would be quieter and more relaxing. Our surroundings are certainly quieter but life is busy, busy, busy at the moment but at least we have managed to produce a Christmas letter though maybe a bit later this year.