Hello Everyone,
Big thank you for all your emails – they have quite cheered me despite the grey days of January.
But as I was sitting eating smoked herrings on toast for my lunch ( Trader Joe’s find) , the sun finally came out and caught the edge of my kitchen table in such a lovely way.
So…. as promised, I am returning to the roofless, tarp-filled world of ‘Before-Land.’ It is indeed another country and one which is so much more enjoyed in retrospect. A bit like child-birth, you kind of forget the length of time it took to deliver and quite the extent of the pain.
Here we are back in our old bathroom.
There is nothing good to be said about our old bathroom…absolutely nothing at all …
It was so hideous that I couldn’t even bring myself to take a picture of it until it was totally gutted and open to the sky…
Where upon it improved quite a lot.
And then we cut it’s size by half to accommodate the stairs – so it is now the world’s tiniest shower room/loo/sink.
Absolutely teeny tiny.
With a record breaking tiny sink…
Which I found at Home Depot for very little. As for the taps, they were the result of a good hours rummaging around in the very wonderful Sink Factory.
And what with the blue blue tiles in the shower and the blue blue birds and the blue blue mirror, I lined the cabinet with something a little brighter.
And let the light work its magic on three old green bottles which came from my lovely friend’s wedding back in Ireland.
And put up a beautiful linen print my sister found me in a craft fair in Sussex.
Our house is basically filled with things that remind me of where I came from – you could say that it is one big expression of home sickness – or, looking at it another way, the very strong desire to feel “at home”.
Now the idea of feeling ‘at home’ was just something that had never crossed my mind until we moved here. Not once. I was just in my world and had no concept of what it would feel to be out of it.
But let me tell you, once you leave and enter a new world, you inevitably feel both adrift and start the rather long, futile and endless enterprise of comparing one world to another.
It really is quite tedious……… you can so easily can become such a bore within either environment…. banging on about the other.
And while filling my house with familiar and special things from my previous life is a comfort, it isn’t what ultimately makes me feel at home.
Time…friendships… events and seasons that come around again and again until a little groove begins to etch itself into your life. A groove that tells you where you are going and roots you to the ground.
So now when I go home, I love it without feeling mournful and I most especially love the countryside around my Mum and Dad…
Who live in the middle of nowhere…
Here is a small path carved entirely by my very lovely Dad on his early morning walk…
And a beautiful view from their garden.
And when it’s time to come back, I am usually ready. Wanting to be in my own home. Getting on with a new life that we have carved out for ourselves.
It’s made that much sweeter by living in an equally beautiful place…
And those ever green Live Oaks make the best fleeting shadows all year round.
I would really like to know your thoughts on what makes you feel “at home” in a place. Writing this has got me thinking…leave a comment below and let me know…
See you,
Ros
ps For those of you who have come here from Sarah’s wonderful A Beach Cottage Good Life Wednesdays ( www.abeachcottage.com ) – Welcome! – let me know what you think too…
all looked so lovely not sure which place i would rather be in – spoilt for choice
but yes I so agree with your idea of that groove, etching itself into your life as the years go by and the seasons come around – good metaphor – liked that!
Lots of love ax
I feel most at home when I am still happily in bed with a cup of coffee, but the two early birds I live with, Edie and Adam, are downstairs already cheerily chirping away, discussing the news or laughing over some shared joke. I like I’m eavesdropping, but in a way that is allowed and I feel very happy and very lucky and like I finally know after so many years what ‘feeling at home’ feels like…Thanks for sharing the gorgeous places you come from and have created with us, Ros! x Becky
maybe you should come and live here? fingers ever crossedxxx
That is so well put – I know just what you mean. It’s almost like being a child again and listening to your parents downstairs. xx
Loved this, Ros. Keep happy in that groove you describe so well. It takes time to feel rooted but it sounds as if you are nearly there. Your house looks lovely and you have obviously a real flair for home making. xx
I totally understand the yearning for a homely feeling. Originally from the UK, I’ve been living in Canada for just over 2 years and I don’t think I ever understood or appreciated the “home” feeling until I moved away. For me, it can be the smallest of things that make me feel at home, even though I’m far away from my closest family and friends.
Thanks Sarah, I totally agree – little moments and little things. I hope that you are having them more and more often now you have been there for two years.