Building a garden from scratch is easier said than done, but for 15 years that is exactly what we did at Ravendale House.
It was often hard work, but we loved it and the result was our 'blank canvas' of 1998 was transformed into a beautiful and productive garden, which I hope you have enjoyed reading about in this blog.
But tide and time wait for no man and sad to say I am no longer able to give the garden the attention it deserves. It would break my heart to see it fall into disrepair, so the time has come to move on.
I will continue this blog in memory of 15 happy years gardening, but I don't have a garden at the moment so will start by telling the story of the last 9 months, so if you want to read the story from the beginning, please click here.
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The removal men had been booked for 7am, and we had been told it would be a 12 to 14 hour job. I was up around 6.15am and had just called Peter to get up, when they arrived, it was 6.40am. Still, better 20 minutes early than 20 minutes late.
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Having owned our own home for 40 years, looking for a place to rent was a bit of an eye opener. Let’s just say that what you get for your money is pretty variable and very basic, verging on the squalid. Also we had to make sure Leonard could be accommodated, a lot of places won’t allow pets.
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“In the space of 48 hours I have lost my dream home (for the umpteenth time) and lost our buyer. How much worse can it get? I must have aged 10 years.”
Having offered to complete on the 17th and heard nothing by our deadline of 5pm, the next message just made us plain angry.
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On Tuesday August 20th we had a call from the agent as promised about ‘Ivy Cottage’. She said they had just received another offer which was ‘considerably more than ours’. I couldn’t do anything about it as we weren’t about to get into a bidding war, so once again I walked away from my dream.
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On Thursday August 15th we got a call from our solicitor. Our buyers solicitor had been in touch to inform her they were wanting to exchange contracts and complete their purchase on Friday August 30th. That was just 2 weeks away.
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After the disappointment of losing Ivy Cottage we had to move on and find somewhere to live. Time had been passing during the failed negotiations, all too quickly in fact, and although our purchasers were being understanding, we did feel obliged to get a move on.
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In the Autumn of 2012 when we made the decision to sell up, we knew that we were heading for a stressful time and that to start with it would be hard work getting everything ship-shape for Spring 2013. That was when we intended to put Ravendale House on the market.
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Detached country cottage – around 0.80 of an acre – a unique opportunity for the garden lover.
After 15 glorious years at Ravendale House the time seems right to pass-on this lovely property to new, younger owners with the energy and commitment to further develop and enjoy it to the full.
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This is the longest, coldest winter I can remember and I don’t think it’s done with us quite yet. The big snow of December 2010 is a mere blip compared to this winter of 2012/2013.
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Peter and I have been married for almost 40 years, and for 39 of those have managed to negotiate doors with little or no problem. In the last 6 months this has changed.