Some final views of the house

I have been living here for more than 12 years now, and have decided that a change is called for. Although I have been very happy here for most of my stay, I feel that I cannot carry on as I am much further into the future. If I had found a wife and started a family things might have been different, but as it is, with no dependents, I feel that now is the ideal time to make a clean break for pastures new. 10 or 15 years down the road and that might no longer be an option. Now is the right time to do it.

House from the south

I made the decision to sell-up not without some apprehension and regret. I had made some very good friends in the area, especially Leo and Ger Mattimoe, John and Chrissie O'Reilly, Steve and Katie Brightwood, Owen Regan, Andy and Bridget, Sue Liddy, and Marjorie Sachs. I will be sorry to leave them all.

House from the south-west (1)

There are also a number of projects that I had started and hoped to finish. The second greenhouse was never glazed, though all the bits were ready to do it. The blacksmithing project, so near to starting, never got going in the end. I never built those big aerial towers or the multi-fan windmill I'd planned, though no doubt the neighbours will breathe a sigh of relief there!

House from the south-west (2)

Often, though, the right person comes along at the right time. I placed my house on the market in April 2006, and after about 20 or 30 viewers, one came along who I felt would carry on where I had left off. Pamela, from Dublin, is a professional landscape-gardener, a keen vegetable grower and amateur gardener. She also makes wine, loves the countryside, and her friend is an amateur blacksmith. I couldn't have asked for a better purchaser.

Workshop and Forge

She is also a cat-person, who had recently lost a cat of her own, so she agreed to take Xerox with the house. Xerox, now 12, is still young enough but likes her routine. Although there were other possibilities, I felt that she would be happiest living where she always had, even if I was not around any more.

Woodwork room from south-east

We agreed on a price for the sale, and then the paperwork was set in motion. The awful reality then dawned on me: I now had just 28 days to pack-up or dispose of a huge volume of possessions that had accumulated over the past years. I have always been an inveterate hoarder of 'stuff', both useful and potentially useful.

A winter view over the mountains

There is a saying in Yorkshire: 'Keep a thing for seven years and you are bound to find a use for it.' I had always lived by this maxim, but could do so no longer. There was no point being tied down with possessions I might never use, or ones that would stop me leaping into this new and exciting chapter of my life to come.

The house in winter (1)

What happened next was a hectic round of organisation and much activity that left little time for such luxuries as sleep! Boxes were acquired for the things I would keep, car-boot sales and radio rallies to dispose of the things I would not. Much midnight-oil was burnt on the eBay site, where many of my possessions were disposed of.

The house in winter (2)

I became very adept at packing books and other items into small cardboard boxes made from small bits of other cardboard boxes, and kept the locals amused as I cycled up and down to the local post office, loaded down with rucksacks, where Alan had to deal with this small avalanche of unseasonal mail.

Peach-tree in blossom

One small set-back occurred at this time: just 2 days before all the packed boxes were due to be moved, I tripped over a wall and damaged my right wrist! A visit to the hospital next day told me that it wasn't broken, much to my immense relief, but I was told that it was badly sprained, and that I wasn't to lift anything for a week or 10 days. Not an ideal thing to happen just then!!

Bluebell wood near Knockvicar

My friends rallied round, ignored my attempts to organise them, and had my remaining possessions moved in record time. The morning of the final day arrived, some final sorting, and the discovery of an electric cheese-grater, a free gift that hadn't yet been unpacked from the box I had put it in when I brought it over from England 12 years before!

Bluebell wood (2)

Pamela arrived, eager to move in. I said my goodbyes to Xerox, and left to stay with friends for a few days whilst the remaining paperwork cleared through, and a lift to England was finalised.

Bluebell wood (3)

Once a house-owner with rooms and rooms of 'stuff', I was now officially homeless, with 3 rucksacks and 2 bags. What a strange feeling that was: I was apprehensive, certainly, but also eager to turn over the new page that would take me to the next chapter in my life.

Knockvicar lake (1)

Just what that chapter will contain, and what will become of me, is another story. For the curious, it will be documented on my Travelling Tim web-pages. Please send me an email, or leave a comment on my guest-map if you enjoy reading it.

Knockvicar lake (2)

A small post-script: some readers have wondered where Xerox got her name. The answer is that when she was a kitten, she would always do what her sisters did, rather than think of things to do herself. She was the original 'copy-cat': what other name could there be ?!

Birthday-picnic for Tim

Bluebell wood (4)

Tim on his 49th birthday

Bluebell wood (5)