Looking ahead

Nothing in life stays the same forever. Age comes along and messes up most things eventually but well before that, for us anyway, our everyday activities are subject to change. We moved into our present house nearly two years ago, a new location, with different places to explore around us which in turn brought us different ways in which to spend our leisure time. Gradually and often imperceptibly our lives have changed. One of these changes is in the way we shop. We have multiple choices now and they are closer to home, an easy distance to walk with a shopping trolley. There are even two different hardware shops close by, something which is difficult to understand when you have lived in a tiny village for so long. It feels like we have moved into a city! Then there is the way we move about. We like to walk, or cycle if we can but to go further afield we now have the benefit of a long distance bus which we can easily hop on to if we ever feel inclined to visit our nearest city, Glasgow. So perhaps it is inevitable that we should reconsider all our activities, the things we do indoors, along with the things we like to do when the weather is appropriate to spend time outdoors.

Decorating the house has been a big thing for us and then the garden has taken a lot of time and effort to bring it to the point where it has what we regard as the right mix of wilderness and cultivated areas. Creating a pond, one with the right mix of wild things that can look after themselves all year, has been a learning experience. It requires patience, the aim being to step away and let the beetles and bugs do their thing in peace. They have been doing this since long before humans came along so there is really no need for us to mess around trying to make the water right for them. Once they are 'happy' then other animals, amphibians perhaps, will be attracted to live there too. It took a few modifications before we managed to get the pond water level to stay constant - not too shallow when we have a dry spell but topping itself up from the garden runoff when it rains and a nice boggy area for it to overflow into. We have already spotted some small frogs in and around the pond and are looking forward to the next frog breeding season, the early spring, to see whether they consider it suitable for their little ones.

As the growing season comes to an end our garden's wild bits, which we have left completely alone, present a challenge if we are to follow guidance on managing this. At least once a year a wildflower garden should be mown, the idea being that this will allow the fallen seeds to germinate and by picking up the cut grass the soil will be less fertile, something that wild flowers enjoy. Mowing requires a heavy duty strimmer - the grass stems are waist high - and raking up all the cuttings afterwards is quite a physical task so we wait for a dry period to come along and when this does arrive the scorching sunshine that comes along too makes this a multi-day hot enterprise.

Internally our house is 'finished', not a term I ever thought I'd be using, but we have redecorated every room, stripped away all the wallpaper that came with the house and ripped up the floor coverings (carpet; including that laid in the kitchen and bathroom!), replacing them with something more to our taste. The last pieces of fresh wallpaper were pasted on with some relish since these may well be the last I ever stick up. My wallpapering skills will fade from memory over time, unless of course the whole lot slides off the wall and we have to start all over again.

So what is next, I wonder.

Something we have missed, being so busy working on the house since we moved in, has been our desire to roam further afield. Scotland is a country we love but we have still not explored it as fully as we would like.

So now we have the resources to do this we shall be pointing ourselves in a new direction. Our bikes are light enough to be slung on a carrier behind the van then unloaded when we reach a place with quiet roads or forest trails we can ride on. Already a few experiments have taught us our physical limits, in terms of distance and ruggedness so the future is beginning to look quite exciting.