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For eight years we have lived in a growing suburban town in East Cheshire, England. Moving here marked the sixth UK county I have called home over the past 36 years of my life, and soon I shall add another stroke to that tally. We are leaving the North West behind and relocating - to Oxfordshire. I am unsure of many things in my life, but for a long time now that insecurity has given me an unidentifiable anxiety. No matter how much I learnt, what ‘perfect’ colour I painted my walls, or what organic food I grew for our bellies, there was an empty pit hard work could not fill. You see, we live over 100 miles from our parents, almost two hundred from my sister in law and close to 250 from my grandfather. Our relationships are strong but our ability to be together is limited; family life has been coordinated by national holidays and motorways. Seeing my daughter make a calendar with her Nanny so she could count down the 30(!) days until they were reunited, fat tears erasing her carefully curved letters, was a pain we did not want to endure anymore, if the opportunity presented itself to change our life. And it has - almost overnight. My husband signed his new employment contract a few weeks ago and we will be leaving once we find a new place to call home. I shan’t deny that saying goodbye here will be a wrench: the oak parquet Mark laid himself (whilst I was too pregnant to lean over) is one of my favourite things about this house. I remember vividly thinking our children would take their first steps where his hands had worked so hard, a story to share with them and a skill to pass on one day too. But leaving here is a price I am happy to pay for being nearer to our family: together we will build a new home - and garden, of course, too. I will be writing about this experience both on my blog and through these Little Postcards to share with you how all our lifestyle choices and value-based living has led to this moment, and enabled us to jump straight in (in a matter of days) and say - let’s go. I plan to share not just the logistical side of moving across the country, but also the emotional and environmental journey (zero waste relocation?) we will navigate in creating a new place to call home. I hope you’ll join me along the way - it’s going to be an education, for sure.
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