I'm sitting here alone in my house tonight with a glass of Kentish white wine and a frittata, made with vegetables from a neighbour's garden. I bartered the vegetables for a pot of the marmalade I make every January, a popular present. Yesterday afternoon was spent sitting in the garden with another neighbour in the village, together with the latest additions to the next generation. Tomorrow my next door neighbour and I are planning a blackberrying expedition in the country lanes that surround the village.
It's been just over a year now since my partner and I made the move from Kent to Suffolk and it's been a challenging and sometimes fraught time. I have often been horribly homesick for my old life and familiar people and places, but having decided to leave my comfort zone, I am slowly beginning to reap the rewards. Friendships take time to grow, but there are some promising beginnings.
Today was spent sorting out the garden, a new challenge for me after years of living in rented houses. It is a continual puzzle to me, what should go, what to keep, what will thrive and where. There have been some successes and some ignominious failures. I am currently trying to work out what to grow beside my pink climbing rose, now planted in the courtyard outside the kitchen - should it be Nepeta, Lavender or a deep blue Hebe? And what will do best in the very dry corner of the bed by the front door when the Cosmos has finished? I'm tempted by a deep red Lavatera framing the herbs - the silver thyme I planted there is spreading itself very nicely indeed. There is so much more to do, so many plans to make, but it's been a good first year and I'm enjoying myself, rootling around deep in the Suffolk soil. It certainly keeps me grounded.
My peaceful time will end tomorrow, as it should. I really wouldn't enjoy it so much if I had too much of it. My youngest son, home from university for the summer, will be returning from his visit to his father in London, soon to be joined by my oldest son and his girlfriend, staying for a couple of days rest and relaxation - them, not me! Then it's off to Holland on the ferry to join my partner, who took the boat over yesterday, for a week or two of cruising the Dutch canals and inland seas before it's back to earth with a bump and perhaps an end of summer Pimm's party for all our new friends and neighbours.
