Tuesday, May 15, 2012

THE MOVING CHRONICLES III

Our moving date has been put back a month because one of the links in the chain is having a struggle to get everything done in time. It’s been a very long since we moved house and the last time we did it, we bought a piece of land and built our own, which means I had completely forgotten the frustrations. How slow it is.

There are other things, too. Weird questions keep popping up. Do we live near a church, for instance. I’ve never come across that one before, but apparently some poor souls inherited a house and found themselves with a vast bill for repairing the nave of the local church. Does anyone have rights to the trees, or the wildlife? And don’t ask me about radon gas.

I’m doing my best to remain calm under pressure and be grateful that I have time to enjoy, this one last time, the azaleas and rhododendrons that we’ve planted. The shrubs that we’ve seen from twigs to six foot monsters, the clematis that scrambles over the old oak tree. The bluebells that were a serendipitous extra that came with some topsoil we bought years ago. One last time to enjoy the clean, fresh leaves of a hosta that has travelled with us over four moves.

It’s too big, too established, too comfortable to shift again and I’ll be leaving it behind, along with a note for the new owners to mulch it with coffee grounds to keep the slugs from turning it into lace.

11 comments:

Chris Stovell said...

It's such a stressful time, you have my sympathy. Well done, though, for seeing the positive side of being where you are for now.

Teresa said...

I like to move. I really like it.

Better, I liked it before.

I moved about 6 times but now I have a house it would pain me so much to leave, and in part due to the garden I started from ground zero.

Take Care, Liz! Hang in There.

Do you have the scientific name for the hosta? I'd like to know more about it.

Wishing you Happy Times ahead.

Teresa

Liz Fielding said...

Absolutely no point in stressing, Chris. The best beloved is doing neough of that for both os us!

Liz Fielding said...

Teresa, it's so long since we bought this hosta that I can't remember exactly which one it is, but while the early leaves are quite green, it because this lovely glaucous blue with maturity (and has white spikes of flowers); this is the nearest I could find.

http://www.gardens4you.co.uk/index.php?/Perennials/Hostas/Plantain-Lily-Hosta-sieboldiana-Elegans-1-plant.html

Donna Alward said...

Crushed egg shells work just as well or better than coffee grounds. :-)

And hugs, Liz. There's a wistful note that I couldn't help hearing. Even the changes we look forward to the most still leave their mark.

Liz Fielding said...

I'm sure they do, Donna, but I don't have as many egg shells as I have coffee grounds - and the grounds don't show. :)

And yes, there's always a touch of sadness. We've had a lovely life here - it's just time to move on.

Diane Fordham said...

Deep breaths... new adventures around the corner. :-)

Vince said...

Hi Liz:

With all this stress and tension, certainly there’s a book in there somewhere.

“The Last House They’d Ever Buy!”

As the only way to get housing close to their university jobs the hero and heroine agree to partner and buy a house together. They did not know each other until the real estate broker introduced them. (She has what could be a man’s name. Jordan Overton, and he has what could be a woman’s name, Adrian Hawks.)

Excerpt from first meeting:

“You’re supposed to be a man!”

“And you’re supposed to be a woman!”




Vince

Liz Fielding said...

Do you know, Vince, one of the earliest Harlequin I ever read - no idea of title or author - involved two people arriving at the same time to view a house. And yes, they were working on a university campus. Since it was the only house available they agreed to share.

If I wrote that it would be completely different though. I didn't much care for the hero. Didn't believe in the romance. Absolutely no humour. :)

Liz Fielding said...

Yes, Diane. It's a bit of a shake up. Which is always good for you. I'm not great at doing things that scare me, but once in a while you need to step off the cliff. :)

Vince said...

Hi Liz:

Just thinking about how you might write this story is enough to make me laugh.

The hero would probably be from Italy. The heroine would be half Italian and her English family will have been feuding with the Italian side of the family for the last 20 years!

Of course, the hero is going to be her new boss in the Renascence Studies department – a fact she does not know at the time. BTW: She can’t understand him when he speaks Italian fast or in dialect. He is always criticizing her Italian. This makes her crazy!

His family were famous Guelphs and hers proud Ghibellines. They switch from fighting about current problems to disputes that happened 1000 years ago -- almost in the same breath. All the historical disputes exactly mirror their current disputes.

Then there is his mother and her father who keep getting into fights about the house purchase and the more they fight the more they fall in love. Neither of them want their kids buying the house together and are trying their best to kill the deal.

This actually could be a little bit like “The Last Woman He’d Ever Date!”

You might even have the mother and father buy the house together instead and rent it to the kids. Not only was it the last house they’d ever buy, they never did buy it.

Vince