Hungry House life
I'm fairly sure that most of my friends think we're quite strange, suddenly deciding to get a house in the middle of green fields (and in much-maligned Essex, no less) when we should be living some crazy hedonistic London life. But right now life feels pretty crazy and hedonistic being here - much more so than the reality of many London weeks where the busy-ness becomes over-much, the difficulty of coordinating diaries with good friends or finding mental space or physical time to do half the things that the city tempts with, and the constant leaching of money become all that one remembers.
Currently, weeks seem to pass quickly as before, but contain so much. Things change fast. I've watched the weather and felt relieved when it rained though needing to scurry out and rescue the washing from the line; I've taken advantage of sunny spells to dig the garden and plant seeds and seedlings; we've ripped up carpets and scrubbed floors and moved furniture. We've gone from eating every meal on the floor in front of the log fire, with only one chair in the house, to having a dining table, studio desks, lamps, armchairs. And still we've both been working fully at our day jobs - in my case, coming through a busy spell - and I've played gigs, too.
I realise that we've not charted our first month at the house in nearly as much detail as we should have. My stock of photos is scarce and most of them are terrible. But we've had the end of daffodils and tulips, and the beginning of roses. I have tomato plants four foot high in the greenhouse, lettuces in the garden. We've eaten the first tender and delicious broad beans; and asparagus keeps poking up, albeit somewhat less profusely that I would wish. We've discovered local farm shops and garden centres (and become all too regular at the local Homebase, sadly) - we've had our first overnight house guest.
Today the brand new lawnmower mowed all the grass and I discovered that the apricot tree really does have some apricots on it. We put up the badminton net and played a few rounds. I did some more digging and sowed beetroot and turnips, and planted out my gherkin seedlings. I made rhubarb crumble and listened to the birdsong. I tied up the roses climbing on the walls. The day was really full - exciting, new and, contrived though it may sound, inspiring.
There are various photos on flickr but I will show you just the conservatory, first thing in the morning, and our first broad beans.
Currently, weeks seem to pass quickly as before, but contain so much. Things change fast. I've watched the weather and felt relieved when it rained though needing to scurry out and rescue the washing from the line; I've taken advantage of sunny spells to dig the garden and plant seeds and seedlings; we've ripped up carpets and scrubbed floors and moved furniture. We've gone from eating every meal on the floor in front of the log fire, with only one chair in the house, to having a dining table, studio desks, lamps, armchairs. And still we've both been working fully at our day jobs - in my case, coming through a busy spell - and I've played gigs, too.
I realise that we've not charted our first month at the house in nearly as much detail as we should have. My stock of photos is scarce and most of them are terrible. But we've had the end of daffodils and tulips, and the beginning of roses. I have tomato plants four foot high in the greenhouse, lettuces in the garden. We've eaten the first tender and delicious broad beans; and asparagus keeps poking up, albeit somewhat less profusely that I would wish. We've discovered local farm shops and garden centres (and become all too regular at the local Homebase, sadly) - we've had our first overnight house guest.
Today the brand new lawnmower mowed all the grass and I discovered that the apricot tree really does have some apricots on it. We put up the badminton net and played a few rounds. I did some more digging and sowed beetroot and turnips, and planted out my gherkin seedlings. I made rhubarb crumble and listened to the birdsong. I tied up the roses climbing on the walls. The day was really full - exciting, new and, contrived though it may sound, inspiring.
There are various photos on flickr but I will show you just the conservatory, first thing in the morning, and our first broad beans.
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