Like many things in life, there was no definitive moment, no epiphany or sudden desire!
It sort of evolved, crept up if you like until suddenly it seemed the logical thing to do.
When the seed was planted we cannot say but the path we moved down seemed to bring us ever closer to this end where we now find ourselves – not that this is the end.
Running a retail business on the high street kept us busy, rather too busy to be truthful and we were swept along with the day to day running of the store and then we booked a holiday in Canada, that was back in 2006. We started in Toronto and ended up in Vancouver and maybe this freedom for two weeks gave us a taste that was to expand as time went on. The following year we visited Southern Ireland and it was in September later that year that we discussed the possibility of changing our lifestyles and move to pastures new.
We talked about moving abroad and Europe, Canada, and other places became hot topics which we enthusiastically talked about the pros and cons of each country. After months of discussion, we settled on only two places that we both liked, the South West of the UK and Vancouver Island.
At this time it became apparent that we required something radically different to our present lifestyle and we were being pulled towards open spaces, nature, and a more self-reliant existence. No need to go into all of the events that occurred over the next 10-11 years but we finally decided on the South West of England. We had to wait a fair while before selling our business and getting into the position of being able to move on but our aims were getting more lucid and closer each year.
We had taken over my father’s allotment when he became too ill to tend it and with the high demands of the business, we found it hard to put the time in to make it work. The result was a letter from the council advising us that if we did not work the allotment as intended we would lose it.
We sat and talked about it going through the reasons we were struggling and decided to commit ourselves more to making it work. Over the next year, we got our act together and turned it around going from one of the worst sites to one of the best. Then we stumbled upon the ‘No dig’ method of gardening, this was a big turning point for us and we have never looked back going from strength to strength and the rewards have been great with crops that have amazed us in both health and harvest.
We finally sold the business and took a rest before seeing to the house and putting it on the market. It has been a long road so far from the time we wanted to change to this point of fruition having now sold our current property and are buying our next one in Cornwall.
It is this move that has inspired me to produce a Blog so others can learn from our trials and successes, friends and family can follow our move and keep in touch in an easy fashion.
More to come later….