A well-earned rest

When Mr B and I retired from paid work in December 2013 it was a huge change in our lives. We had both worked at the sharp end of the NHS stick – Mr B for forty years, I for thirty-five. Life had been busy! But that December day was a milestone for another reason – it was also the day we left the house that had been our family home for over 22 years. In a way this double whammy was a good thing because it stopped us becoming too maudlin over one or other of the events, both of which rock your sense of reality!

Our three girls had loved growing up where they had, in a particularly green part of Cardiff; the house backed onto the primary school fields, the secondary school was a five minute trot away, and Roath Park Lake just ten minutes on foot. Added to which, Mr B and I could both walk to work in twenty minutes, so it was practically perfect for all of us. But now it was time to move on. I wanted to look forward not back, and having the school so close was a constant pull to the past.

But where to go? As somebody Cardiff born and bred, Mr B had never lived outside the city but he’d hankered after a slice of country life for years. I’d grown up in a semi-rural location further west so I was a bit fussier, knowing what I did and – more importantly – didn’t want. So we sold up and spent four months in a large, comfortable rented flat overlooking Pontcanna Fields while we looked around for something that took our fancy. We found it not too far from Crickhowell in Powys.

Before I left work and Cardiff behind, several friends had suggested that I write a blog so that they could keep up with the goings-on in our lives. They were so sure that we’d be having an adventurous time! For a while I forgot about the idea but then started wondering if it was something I’d like to do – instead of lengthy posts on Facebook, I could fill a page with ramblings and photographs!

And for a while it worked, but six years on life has changed in so many ways that this blogsite also has to change. So here goes!

Hwyl xx