In the months that I have not been blogging, we have sold our house and moved into a small retirement village. We have been in our new home now for 5 weeks and feel quite settled here, although we still have some boxes to unpack. Life has been very hectic with all the hassles of selling, and preparing the house for sale, as well as a ton of decluttering which has been very stressful. I am actually surprised that we have come through the whole "ordeal" without any major health issues and fortunately we are still married!
Now that much of the hard work of moving is over, I am feeling more like writing, and although we probably won't be travelling as much, we hope to be doing some day trips around our lovely State. As some of the reasons we decided to move was to give ourselves a lifestyle we could enjoy without having the constant maintenance of our house which we had lived in for 53 years. Our physical health has been stopping us from being able to do many of the jobs around the house like gardening, as our large block and house was on a hillside and we also had a lot of steps into and around the house. My osteoarthritis and more recently Rheumatoid Arthritis and Sjogren's has meant I struggle walking more now than I used to and I have fallen a few times which makes me worry about more broken bones.
Our new house is smaller, but open plan, and has no steps so I feel very safe here as I go about the house. We have a lovely pergola off the living area and a small garden at the front, and a maintenance man that does any of the work that needs doing if we don't want to do it ourselves.
As we still haven't been travelling, I am starting 2022 with some photos of our "old" house and garden, and some of the "new" house and garden.
New house
Our new house is smaller and we are now trying to downsize our patio furniture which is too large for the smaller patio, so sometime soon we have to decide what to keep and what will have to go, but we have a few more things to do first. As it has been very hot so far this summer, I think some of the hydrangeas will have to go as the sun has burnt them. It is a pity as my hydrangeas at our old house were magnificent as they were in shade most of the day, but here the sun beats down on most areas in the patio. I will wait till Autumn and find some more sun tolerant plants, probably Australian native grevilleas as they like the sun.
I hope I still have some of my previous followers, and perhaps some new followers, and if so I would love to hear from you in the comments.
I will be trying to do some day trips soon, so look forward to a weekly or fortnightly blog of some of the lovely places near Adelaide.
That's all for now,
Stay safe and well.
Nice to see your post pop up. It is such a sensible thing to move on to something more suitable for your age and fitness levels. Oh yes, burnt hydrangeas! I remember them well. I look forward to hearing of your local travels.
ReplyDeleteIt is so good to hear from you again. I've missed your posts, although I'll admit there were/are days I do not get the chance to read all of the posts I follow. I've wondered about you and if everything was okay, so I'm glad to hear all is good. What a change for you in the meantime and a good one at that, even though there are still things for you to do. A move is always quite an ordeal - just deciding what to keep, downsizing (which is often very difficult to do), and then setting up in a new home. I love the beautiful grass in your new yard, and your patio seems quite nice. Having a ground level home to come and go will be a great asset to you.
ReplyDeleteA bloody good post
ReplyDeleteSo nice to see you back! You certainly have had a lot going on and adjustments being made. Thanks for the photos of your old and new homes. Hope you can get out on the road again soon. I've been struggling with my eyesight but can still see the screen in the right light, photos are easier to see than text so excuse any typos.
ReplyDeletePauline, I hope there is some good news soon for your eyesight.
ReplyDeleteJo-Anne, thanks.
Cheri, thanks and yes downsizing is much more difficult than I thought it would be.
Andrew, we are happy we made the decision to downsize now before we get too ancient! Its good to know we don't have to maintain and spend heaps of money on keeping an old house in good condition.