Showing posts with label IOW. Show all posts
Showing posts with label IOW. Show all posts

Tuesday, 11 February 2020

One Week Today!

Well I started this post just over three weeks ago I think it was...and now it is one week today since....



Well it has been a long time coming, and a long time in the planning...I think I first mentioned moving on my blog back in 2007 when we saw a lovely property in Cornwall, had booked a second viewing, but it sold before we could go back for our second look.  In between then and now it has been a long slow process of trying to convince DH about the benefits of moving, and a couple of years ago we settled on the idea of moving to the Isle of Wight.  Although we love Cornwall, because we will still have family commitments in Hertfordshire, we need to be able to get there relatively quickly...and you just can't get from Cornwall to here in less than five hours on a good day!  The last two years have been a bit fraught with false starts, some disagreements, and two houses falling through.  The one we are finally buying has taken six months to go through!  This whole house buying system in the UK seems absolutely crazy and unnecessarily difficult... I still don't know if it was the buyers or their solicitors who were not doing what they said they were doing.  I am pretty sure our solicitor was okay as she sent through copies of all the emails she sent theirs....but who really knows.  The buyers perhaps feel the same about us!  Anyway I am now in the throes of packing up the house ready for completion and moving on 4th February.  I can't quite believe it is actually happening!

Of course sods law applies and the last few days I have been struck down with the dreaded lurgy.  I almost never get colds/viruses, the last being when I flew to NZ last year, and previous to that I can't really remember.  So I haven't been able to achieve anywhere as near as much as I had hoped to by this stage, having had several days when I haven't been up to much at all.

The scary thing is the amount of stuff we have accumulated over the last twenty years in this house.  The last 10 years especially I have added to it considerably with the loss of my music other interests have taken its place and I really have way to much stuff.  I had hoped to sort through and clear some of it, whether through selling or giving to charity of throwing away, but again I haven't managed to do that especially well, so a lot of stuff we will take we may not end up keeping. I am just going to slowly work on one box at a time once we are in the new house...and be very strict with myself.  It would have been easier yes to do it BEFORE we moved, but it just hasn't worked out that way.  We have taken a car load of stuff to the charity shop today though which is good.



Well I started this three weeks ago... I moved in on Tuesday, the removers finally finished unloading the vans at 9.30pm at night!  It was a very long day.  They worked very hard, were lovely guys and on a whole did a reasonable job, although I was disappointed that quite a bit of furniture was marked AND they broke our beautiful Swamp Kauri Coffee table... they were told not to lift it from the top, and I think they must have clearly done so as the wood sheared off the base of the top.  So I am not at all happy at the moment.  Hopefully they will be able to find someone who will have the skills to fix such a unique and unusual piece of furniture as it certainly can't be replaced.

It was a beautiful evening and just before they left we all looked up at the sky and gasped at all the stars we could see.  Just wonderful.



Wednesday was a gorgeous day and I enjoyed lunch on our decking watching the sea.  Can't get much better than that?  You can see the sea from all the front rooms of the house as well as the front and back garden.  Absolutely fabulous.  It is like a dream come true.




So far there has been some beautiful sunrises.


Saturday was another spectacular day with a stunning blue sky. This is our back garden. We have half an acre, it is an unusual shape as we have a bit that goes to the right behind another property which is 'the orchard'. 



It is now Tuesday, several more days have passed since I started this blog post and I have been here exactly one week...although that isn't quite right as I had just boarded the Ferry in Southampton this time last week.  We have had some stunning days and of course some not so good days with the recent storm, but with a view like we have here, it is always interesting and different and I just love it.  Today has been a bit of a mixed day, it started off beautiful, then we had a light hail shower, and this afternoon has been just glorious again and I went for a lovely walk (will post photos in a new post)  A few photos following of the changing views today.



Zooming in to the sea



This was taken shortly before I went for my walk.  It was such a nice afternoon I just couldn't resist going out.

Off to the right and side the sky is now glowing a slight red as the sun sets...

Saturday, 23 November 2019

IOW for the Day.

Yesterday we had a lovely day out on the Isle of Wight.


We caught the 7.30  am ferry from Southampton and arrived just before 9 am in the morning.


We had a wander around Godshill when we first arrived and had a lovely cuppa in a Cafe there before we headed off to have a walk around St Lawrence and Ventnor.



We enjoyed a delicious lunch at the Plantation Room Cafe before having a wander around the beautiful gardens that even now have lots of interesting plants to admire.
















We walked down to Steephill Cove









Stanley absolutely loved it!




My daughter in law enjoyed it as well.





This place has really been left to deteriorate.  I took a photo of it several years ago and it wasn't any where near as bad as this.  It was bought a few years ago and a ridiculous planning application was submitted for huge extension and changes that just would not have suited the property.  I am not sure if they were approved or not...I suspect not...and cynical me now suspects that it is being left to get to the stage where it is no longer tenable to restore, so it can be torn down and some modern monstrosity built in its place...  







We then headed back up to the Botanical Gardens and enjoyed some of the flowers.








We finished the day in a wonderful very dog friendly cafe in Ventnor on the beach front.


Dog beds were provided for the four legged 'customers' and Percy took full advantage of one.



We enjoyed very tasty cakes and tea/coffee.  

We caught the 6 pm Ferry back and was home just before 9 pm.