Moved

Six weeks have flown by. I've moved to a new house, moved Brena to a new yard, received visitors happily for a week, and have been very busy decorating. There hasn't been a moment spare.

And so I haven't posted anything for a couple of months.

My new home is a sixth of a stone-built manor house dating from 1760. It gives me much more space than a modern house of the same price, at the cost of a certain draughtiness and some rather irregular walls. I love my new home, and now I'm making it truly my own. Scarcely a surface hasn't seen a paintbrush. New light fittings have appeared. Lots of pictures grace the walls, along with several Romanian tapestries. I've just bought beautiful prints of work by Alphonse Mucha, Paul Nash and Georgia O'Keefe to diversify my decorative plethora. Diverse artefacts sit on shelves or hang from walls. (My need for a stimulating living environment may be an ASC thing.) Lucky the cat is happy to have a big apartment to prowl around, or doze in diverse corners of.

Today I took Brena out on an afternoon both misty and bright. The trail felt detached, nowhere and anywhere. The air was a perfect temperature, a friendly nurturing warmth. Brena seemed enthusiastic, and not only when it came to eating the white cow parsley which every horse enjoys. Her new barn is proving to be a success, and she has integrated into a new herd upon a chalk ridge.

Suddenly it feels as if I have a better balance to my life. A new equilibrium. I've shed my former dwelling, shaped after the desires of another, where I never felt at home.

I'm officially and legally divorced too. Free within this wide world to be myself, an individual with friends and interests, able to explore.

A good friend mentioned Ithaca, the object of Homer's Odyssey, as a model. It doesn't matter whether ones journey is long or short, whether one arrives rich or poor. Indeed a longer journey is preferable for it allows one to experience a greater depth and breadth. It feels as if I have cast off, and now the breeze is starting up.

On with my journey.....

 

Comments

[Shirley Nicholas]

I raise my glass (errr... coffee cup!) to your new beginnings! Looking forward to the new scenery on your rides.
I like your taste in art. I have long admired Mucha's work.

[WHP]

Thank you, Shirley. I love the big, new Mucha print in my kitchen.