Thirteen

February 17, 2026

Today I’ve been blogging for thirteen years - and as ever I’m grateful to you for being here, and for being part of my online space and community. I think the past year has been one of my most sporadic years of blogging, and I’m not really sure why. I always have plenty to share, and plenty more that I run out of time to share, and while I have a plan I’m much less rigid about sticking to it, which is a positive and a negative. I’m always busy, so perhaps the answer is there somewhere, but I’m keen to see where this year takes me and my blog and I hope you’ll hang around to find out too.

Usually as part of my blog birthday tradition I indulge my other passion for a list (putting the pouches aside for a moment!) Again this year I’m struggling for what this could be, it’s these big numbers you see - they don’t make it easy!

Last year I looked to try and capture the differences between city and country life and once I got started it was easier than I anticipated, so hopefully once I settle on a topic that will be true again this year…

One of the big things for us in moving here has been getting to know new people and feel part of our new community. We hosted a get together inviting all the neighbours from houses we could see from our windows over to say hello. It was a great start, if not a little nerve wracking to start off with as we had no idea if anyone would come, and it was a really nice afternoon which easily snuck into the evening, and it meant that as we walked around the village, or were in our garden gardening people would stop and say hello, but we knew we’d need to do more than that to truly feel like we belonged.

So for this year’s blog birthday post I’ve decided to give a shout out to the clubs, groups and places which have made us feel welcome here, and often provide a cheery smile and plenty of chat which makes us feel like we belong, and has truly helped us settle into our new lives.

The first group I joined was the Newark Sewing Group which meets twice monthly, one weekday evening and one Saturday morning. Of the early craft groups I went along to it was the most friendly and welcoming, and it still is. I’ve also been to a couple of quilt shows with people from the group which has made for some enjoyable days out, and so much more fun than going on my own.
MOH joined the Flintham Cycling Club the first year we were here too, and he rides with them most Sundays, weather permitting - so at the moment it’s a bit sporadic! As well as the cycling, there’s usually a cafe stop and a chance to socialise in the pub afterwards. I think it’s good for us both to do things independently, and let’s face it I’m not in MOH’s league when it comes to cycling!
Once I rekindled my sewing skills, I was also keen to get back into patchwork and so joined the patchwork group Sherwood Stitchers, who also meet twice a month on a weekday evening and a weekday afternoon. This is a relatively new to me group, and a bit further afield, but I couldn’t feel more welcome and we’ve already been to a new to me (and to many of the group) patchwork shop in nearby, but sounding ‘proper up North’, Worksop.
After living here for about a year we also started to go along to our village Parish Council meetings, which are every other month and are good way to discover what’s going on in our, and the neighbouring, village. They often finish with a refreshment or two in the pub nearest the meeting venue, which provides an informal way of talking to people from the village, who we wouldn’t usually meet. I’m not sure why it took us so long to go along!
More recently we’ve also become founding members of the newly formed village Speed Watch team which unites many villagers against the seemingly increasing speed of traffic through our 30mph village. At the moment we’re spending a chilly 30 minutes recording the speed of traffic as it passes by with one of our neighbours. Hopefully the weather will warm up a bit soon, and the traffic will lessen once the new road fully opens, and a longer term solution will be in place.
I’ve also recently started going along to the Flintham Froggers crochet group on Friday afternoons - it’s very new to me - I’ve been twice and in absolutely stupendous organisation it’s held in the pub a couple of villages away. I mean, what’s not to like?! It’s the first time I think I’ve crocheted since my Carpal Tunnel op before we moved, and it’s oh so good to crochet again, even if it means I’ve started a new project.
When we were scoping out the area before putting an offer in on our house, one of the pubs we checked out was The Chequers in Elston. We took our research seriously and walked from our village to the pub following the roads not knowing of an alternate route. It was do-able but not overly pleasant and so we asked in the pub before we headed back, to be pointed towards the bridleway which we use as a much preferred ‘off road’ route to the pub. We don’t have a pub in our village (which we clearly knew about before we moved here) but having one within walking distance is a good option. We’re irregular regulars, but we always get a warm welcome whenever we go, which always encourages us to go back.
Another place we’d scoped out before we moved was Cafe Velo Verde, a cycling cafe that MOH had seen was nearby. In fact we tried it out after our second viewing when we were still pondering if a new build really was for us. They do the best cheese and ham toasted sandwiches in the area (which is still true even though the cafe has changed hands) and in fact the welcome we get now is warmer than when we moved here, and it was pretty good back then too.
I was also keen to try out the wellbeing focussed businesses at the EcoFarm in Screveton, and they’ve been so good that I’m a regular for hair cuts at Arrowolf Hair Studio and for some brilliant massages at The Parlour, which are both based opposite Cafe Velo Verde. Both are based in one of the five glass fronted converted containers, and have offered me the opportunity to chat to someone other than MOH, which at times I think all of us need with our partners. It’s a great set-up and there’s also a barbers (which MOH uses occasionally), a counsellor and less in the wellbeing sphere, a kitchen shop.
When The Wellness Shed also opened at the EcoFarm I was curious to see what they’d offer. I managed to persuade MOH to get his back checked by the chiropractor, who he now highly rates, and then I also persuaded MOH to join me to try out Reformer Pilates. That was in October, and we’re still going almost once a week - we’ve improved, though we’re still very much beginners, but it’s a great and friendly space and we both know it’s doing us good. Plus we can pop over to the cafe for a cuppa afterwards too.
I tried a few exercise classes in the local, and some not quite so local areas too before settling on a lunchtime yoga flow session with Wild Earth Yoga in the next village along’s village hall. It’s a small class, but friendly, and we all have a wobble or two as we move between poses, some days more than others though often me more than everyone else! The bonus is it’s right next to the small village shop, so if I time it right I can also pop in for some local eggs, or windfall fruit from the allotments, and it has been known to get asked an IT support question or two when I do.
We’ve also found ourselves frequenting a really nice restaurant and an independent wine merchants in Newark, who knew? But the people at both Taylor’s Restaurant and Ann Et Vin Independent Wine Shop have also made us feel welcome, and let’s be honest, they’re both very fine establishments which we’re more than happy to frequent!
Finally, I’m giving a shout out to two of the places where we buy our meat. I know it sounds odd, but I’m used to a good butchers and rarely buy meat from the supermarket. Back in London when I stopped work I joked that I’d turned into a 1950s housewife who popped to the shops every day to buy provisions for dinner, and that always meant a chat with my butcher and green grocer there. I’m less 1950s housewife here, but I do rate the produce and people at both Cropwell Farm Shop & Richard’s Quality Meats, the butchers in Newark town centre.

I’m sure many of the people in these clubs, groups and places have no idea of the impact they’ve had on MOH and I, but I know that without a healthy dose of human interaction living here, and settling in, would have been a whole lot tougher for us both. So thank you to everyone who’s made us feel welcome, you will never know how much it’s meant (and means) to us.

So here’s to another year, I hope you’ll stay around.

Twelve

February 17, 2025

Today I’ve been blogging for twelve years - and like last year I’m not sure where the time has gone, though I’m grateful to you for being here, and for being part of my online space and community.

Usually as part of my blog birthday tradition I indulge my other passion - and that’s for a list. This year though it’s taken me a fair while to work out what that list should be, and I guess as the number gets higher that’s always likely to be the case!

Looking back over the years and those three cupcakes to celebrate my third year was looking very promising, but even for me twelve cakes is a lot - so it needed to be something else…

Last year I looked at what had changed for me since I started blogging, this year I’m going to try to capture the differences between city and country life - and trust me, I don’t have a list of twelve as I start to write this post - so once again it could be interesting!

But here goes:

Mud. There’s a lot of it here, and obviously way more than in London. I’m not a huge fan of mud, especially walking - or slipping - across it, but walking boots definitely help, which leads onto…
The countryside is on our doorstep. Sometimes quite literally. But we can walk for less than 10 minutes in any direction and be surrounded by fields, that’s a big plus and vastly different from before where even if we drove for 10 minutes we wouldn’t have reached much countryside - though there are clearly pockets of green and wooded areas in and on the outskirts of London
Transport. We still live on a bus route, as we did in London - in fact there are three different routes which pass us here, rather than the two previously. It’s just they’re much less frequent, one route only runs four times a day and the other two twice an hour - but within minutes of each other both times, so if we’re using the bus it takes planning.
Greengrocers. Now this is an odd one, there are no greengrocer shops in Newark. Yes, there’s plenty of farm shops around, but the nearest actual greengrocers is either eight or eleven miles away, depending if you’re heading towards Bingham or Bottesford. There are generally more markets though, and the best veg I’ve found is from (what I call) the muddy veg stall in Newark, but they’re only there on a Friday and Saturday. Their veg though is fresh and has that feeling that it’s just been picked (most likely because it probably has) but often it’s still covered in mud.
Takeaways. Our takeaway consumption has dramatically lowered. We had fish and chips last week for Valentines, and before that our last takeaway was fish and chips in September. We’ve had a takeaway Chinese and Indian but I think they were probably before that. There are plenty of options in Newark and around, and we were clearly spoilt before just being able to walk around the corner to pick one up, having to get the car out and drive the four or so miles doesn’t happen that often.
Milk. This also takes more planning - I now buy two four pints of milk regularly, rather than just picking some up when we needed some. Our local farm shop only sells milk in glass bottles, which takes a level of planning which I just don’t have or aspire too. I also have an ‘emergency’ two pints of milk in the freezer, something that I wouldn’t even have considered whilst living around the corner from an M&S Simply Food.
Farmers & Tractors. Not unsurprisingly we see a lot more of these in our rural village, though I suspect if you’ve been in Westminster lately you’ll have seen a fair few more than usual too. Being a Londoner I don’t think I ever realised how much work farmers put in, but here we see just part of that first hand as they make multiple journeys a day past our house, almost always with a friendly wave for anyone they see as they do.
Washing vegetables. Yes I know you’re supposed to wash all the veg, even the ones that come in those sterile gas-filled bags from the supermarkets, but I rarely did as a rule. Now though, buying as much of our veg from farm shops and markets I routinely wash more of our veg, apart from MOH is called in to scrub some of the more muddier veg!
Eating out past 8:30pm. It’s not all bad, far from it, as there are plenty of fab places to eat but we have readjusted the times we book tables for. They’re mostly timed to coincide with the time the bus arrives, and are often much earlier than we would even consider booking for in London. We’re off to London this week and are heading out to dinner before our almost last train home - and we’ve booked that for 6pm too, so we have enough time to have a relaxed meal, and not have to dash to Kings Cross for the train.
Living in a 30mph zone. On the face of it this hasn’t changed, but in London there was so much traffic that it could rarely reach the speed limit, whereas here there’s so few traffic that it’s rare (but not completely unheard of) for traffic to bother to slow down to actually 30mph from the 60mph zones which buffer the village. Sometimes there’s an effort, sometimes a car does and a trail of four or so cars follow, but often some just don’t even bother.
Exterior house lights. Country people are obsessed with lighting up their houses, and I’m not sure why. We have lights on the front and back of ours, and they’re handy to have, but they don’t go on every night. Maybe I’m missing something?
People talk to you. Now this probably should have been higher up the list, and probably isn’t a surprise. In London people rarely talk to you, unless perhaps you might have passed each other on the street for say six months or a year, and never on public transport. Here though, that’s not the case. The first time we got the bus to Nottingham - it was a mini bus at the time, since upgraded to a single decker - it was like the whole bus was part of the conversation. And many of them had watched as our house was built, seeing progress as they whizzed past on their twice daily journey and were pleased to have met the new owners, reassuring us that the house had been well built. I’m getting more used to it, but occasionally do have to remind people that I’m from London and so not used to all this chat, and they often sympathise with me!

Actually the list came together more easily than I expected, though it was helped by a brief pause while I headed out to Zumba, which relates to another one that could have made the list - the number of village halls - but didn’t. I’ve been to many of the village halls local to me for various activities and classes, but I don’t think I ever went into a church hall back in Blackheath, or if I did not regularly.

So life is different, but not in a bad way at all.

Here’s to another year, I hope you’ll stay around.

Eleven

February 17, 2024

Today I’ve been blogging for eleven years - and I’m not quite sure where the time has gone.

As you’ll know this space has changed name in the past year, but I’m still keeping my original starting date as my ‘blog birthday’ as that’s when it all started for me back in 2013. I’m sure lots of things have changed since then too, more than I can probably remember!

But as part of my blog birthday tradition, I thought I’d give it a go - so here’s eleven things that have changed for me since I started blogging:

Where I blog: I started off using a free Blogger blog with one of the inbuilt templates. I soon outgrew the inbuilt template though, and learnt enough html to make changes to its look and feel and feel a bit more like the Life at 139a home that I changed from back in the summer. I relatively quickly decided to move away from the Blogger platform, and to move to my own url, which I did with Squarespace. Then last summer following our house move I updated that url to the one I’m using today, so quite a journey.
Where I live: that’s the other big change you’ll know about already. After growing up and living in London we’ve escaped to the country. We left our house of twenty one years - 139a - and moved to Nottinghamshire. I’ve still plenty to share about our new house, and our move!
Where I work: again a big change, as I am no longer working having taken early retirement in 2022. But even before that I left my job of nearly thirty years in the City in 2014 taking some time out before working locally in Greenwich for six years.
My name! While I was working I continued to use my maiden name, but used my married name for non-work related things. That was the plan anyway, and quite often I’d forget which led to MOH regularly asking what name I was using that day! Since I’m no longer working I’m using my married name more and more, though it’s still taking some getting used to - even after sixteen years of marriage (seventeen this year) I feel I’m always surprised when I answer to my married name in the doctors!
What I blog about: one of the reasons for starting my blog was to share updates on the work to update our house in London, once that completed though I still found plenty to share especially visits to gardens and our own garden, again starting with the work we undertook shaping the grass and then to monthly updates. It’s almost as if it’s come a full circle now though, with a new house and plenty of projects to come.
Getting my craft on: back in 2013 I was a lapsed crafter having tried many crafts over the years. Life was busy and there was little time to craft back then, but now crafting is a much bigger part of time and more regularly, especially as I’ve now got a dedicated space for crafting - so different to having my craft materials across several rooms of the house (though MOH might legitimately comment that that hasn’t really changed!)
Blogging: it’s changed quite a lot, or perhaps I don’t have the same time or energy for blogging groups, blogging circles or blogging events - though I suspect the latter may have been scuppered initially by Covid, and then more recently by reduced budgets. However, I think that’s ok, things move on. Quite a few bloggers I got to know back in those early days have stopped writing their blog, but it’s great to still keep up with many of them. I do a lot less brand work and when I do I’m even more choosy than I was before!
How I use my social channels: this also relates to how blogging has changed, but also to how social media has also changed. I now rarely use X and my blog’s Facebook page has lapsed (even though I renamed it back in the summer) and I share fewer and fewer of my blog posts on my social channels. Where I previously resisted using Instagram stories, these are probably now the social channel I use the most - I think that also reflects how life, and how we use technology has also changed.
PoCoLo, the weekly linky I co-host: I started to co-host the linky back in 2016, and since 2019 I’ve co-hosted PoCoLo with Suzanne from Chicken Ruby. The linky itself has changed as we no longer include the Blogger Showcase element, as quite honestly we didn’t have people wanting to share information this way. As I said, things change but there is still a community of people who join in each week, and we both love to host each week.

Ermm… now I’m struggling.

Clearly so many things in the world around us have changed and I’d need a much longer list to cover off those. So instead I’m finishing my list with two things that haven’t changed quite so much, if at all.
Clearly MOH has been here all along, and I’m grateful for that obviously - though occasionally he still finds things out when people we know in real life ask him about posts on my blog. He really should read here more often, but he’s not much of one for things online!
And you, I’m grateful for everyone that reads my blog - whether you dip in every now and again, or more regularly. It really wouldn’t be the same place without you!