2012 Christmas message

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Dear friends,

I trust this newsletter finds you fit and well.

In my newsletter last year I said that I’d have some exciting news for this year. The plans were devised last year but came to fruition in 2012. I decided that I wanted to retire to embark on what I call “my second life”, which is all about “experiences”. I have a “bucket list”, i.e. a list of all the things I want to do before I die - and I’m going to do them!

I refuse to be on my death bed saying “I wish I’d.....”

The list broadly covers experiences (or stuff to do!), travel aspirations and writings I would like to complete, there are more details on this web site.

So, I left World Vision where I was working part time in March and spent a couple of months getting the house in order to sell as I needed to downsize and release some equity to be able to afford the bucket list. Most people said I’ve sold relatively quickly in the current economic climate (7 months), however as I sold my last house the day it went on the market and my Prestbury house 6 months before it went on the market, 7 months felt like 7 years! Many people have asked if I’ll be sad to leave the nature reserve after all the work I’ve put in, and the answer is no. It took me a long time to come to the decision to sell - but once I’d decided - I have looked forwards and not backwards.  My new place has 2 acres so I’ll be able to have a mini version of Seven Acres!

I wanted to move somewhere with dramatic scenery. It’s very “pretty” where I currently live, but not “dramatic”. I considered the north west coast of Scotland, but rapidly discovered that nobody would come and visit because of the distance, ditto north coast of Devon. I love the Lake District - but there are too many tourists. My favourite place as a kid was Brimham Rocks, and I travelled there to spend my 50th birthday, so that seemed like a pretty good starting point, and my move to Pateley Bridge is only 15 minutes from Brimham! Whilst house hunting I took the girls (Pip and Tinker) to Brimham and they absolutely love it also. They also love campervanning in general and share one of the single beds.

Tinker has totally settled in here, and there was never a more aptly named dog, as she is definitely Tinker by name and Tinker by nature! She loves water (whereas Pip hates it) and she thought she’d arrived in heaven when she discovered that Seven Acres had a pond. As the pond water is very murky, especially when you have Tinker jumping around and and churning it all up, I bought her a paddling pool ... which she ate...so I bought her an extra strong dog paddling pool ... which she tore apart,and eventually I got a child's solid plastic sand pit and that seems to do the trick! Despite being a little tinker, she is still as cute as when she was 9 weeks old.

In March I was head-hunted to participate in a TV programme called Come Dine With Me (CLICK for more details) which was shown on national TV in June, and even I was able to laugh with it.

At Easter I headed up to Inverness for a fantastic creative writing course organised through the Arvon Foundation, so now I just need to put pen to paper and let those novels flow. Writing

April saw a trip in Tweedie (the old camper) with the girls down to Cornwall where I visited the Eden project and the Lost Gardens of Heligan, and of course lots of trips to the beautiful large beaches to give the dogs a good run.

May saw Seven Acres go on the market, and although I had a lot of viewings, most people didn’t read the brochure. For example, 3 couples each with horses had only read “house, land and stables” and were genuinely shocked when they turned up to find the field full of trees … even though the brochure mentioned the 2,500 trees planted …and had photos…

On my birthday I was invited to a wedding where the bride and groom spent their wedding night in a Bedouin tent in my field surrounded by their camping friends. It was a great event, but it fell over jubilee weekend, so was a bit damp…well it chucked it down … but still a great use for the glade I created.

I had a quick escape in July to Gambia for a week and on return sacked the useless estate agent and switched to Knight Frank, who I have to say are the most professional estate agent I have ever dealt with - and this is my tenth move.

The rest of the summer passed in a daze and however hard I tried not to  put my life on hold whilst waiting for a buyer, I wasn’t as active as usual, although I had a couple of trips up to Yorkshire to recce houses from the outside and to hone down the areas I was looking at…but I kept going back to Brimham and the surrounding villages.

In October the people who are buying Seven Acres came for the first viewing and they were the only people who instantly “gottit” over what I’ve done here. They are a lovely couple and I know I’m handing over the woodland into good hands.

Sparkies Jazz is still going strong and at the beginning of the year we switched from the pub we played at regularly in Oving to The Rose and Crown in Wingrave - my local, and we much prefer playing there. The band is going to continue when I move and I’m going to commute down once a month for a rehearsal and try to get to as many Rose and Crowns as I can. Some people think is a crazy idea, however, I’ve made a lot of friends whilst living “down south” and with all my moves I know how quickly friendships can drift when you move 200 plus miles away, so each time I come down, I’ll meet someone for coffee / lunch and this will make it easier to keep in touch.

My pyrography work came along well this year and I set up a web site called Woodenpics

Well - I guess I had better go and do some packing :-))

Wishing you a great Christmas and all the very best for 2013!

Susan