Oh to be a completer-finisher

Those of you who know me well will understand why packing is a nightmare time for me. Not only am I an ENFP with the attention span of a butterfly, but I also scored miserably in all the 'completer-finisher' elements of other personality and work-style tests that I've done over the years.

I need my alter-ego, my perfect complement, my lifetime work colleague - I need you now, Jude!

Cesar is very good at starting and finishing things but works in a way that is a total mystery to me and without - or so it seems to me - a sense of identifying priority jobs first. He does what he feels like doing and does it apparently in isolation from all the other things that need to be done. It drives me mad and the only consolation is that he does do a good and thorough job with everything - and I have to convince myself that his end goal is to get everything done in time! It doesn't help the harmony in our house that he also has a horrible cold and an upset stomach - but woe betide anyone who even HINTS that this might be related to our current situation....

I am only writing now because I am avoiding finishing something - it really does depress me to make those final box-closing, taping along the edges adjustments - and I always find something in a drawer that belongs to the thing I just sealed in a big box.  I have counted how many boxes we have packed already and thus far, we have 79 - not huge boxes, I must add, but that's at least 79 trips from our house to the truck and then from the truck to the barn where they'll be stored. If there are 4 of us - which there will be - that's still almost 20 trips each and that doesn't include the actual furniture!!

But joy of joys, we have a tenant for our house! I think I must thank Christine because she's been sending all sorts of positive energy our way and this solution is perfect because it helps out someone I know - they have sold their old house but not completed on their new one so need somewhere for a few months and are happy to come here. It means we won't leave our house empty and it gives us time to adjust to the idea of putting it up for rent longer term if necessary.

And in just one week, we will have waved goodbye to all our belongings as we spend our last night in our home in England....

Knitting

Not sure if I mentioned how much I love knitting yet in my blog.  Many years ago, I used to do lots and lots of it - the more complicated the pattern, the better I liked it.  Then for a long time, I stopped. I don't think I knitted for my children when they were babies - maybe just one thing for Mateo - but now, I've been rebitten by the knitting bug. Ah, just remembered I posted a picture of my first two items, which were in Noro wool, a Japanese 100% yarn that is lovely to work with. Here they are again.

I've been buying yarns from ebay and oddments from a shop in Holmfirth and discovered that I adore a Peruvian wool with alpaca called Mirasol - which is a fairtrade yarn and just gorgeous to knit with. I have just ordered some more of that!  From a Debbie Bliss SoHo wool, I made a beautiful scarf for my niece Emily, who I won't see now for ages and ages as she's gone off to travel around Europe with two friends - she's 18 and has just finished her 'A' levels. She won't be back before we leave for Spain and will goto Liverpool University to study to be a vet in October. I wanted her to have something I'd made for her though I confess to wanting the scarf for myself when I finished it - so I do hope she likes it.

  

 I have since finished a jumper for Romy, 

which has little pixie buttons along the neckline:

 

another two scarves - one in the Debbie Bliss SoHo wool like Emily's scarf but a different pattern - the other a super thick chunky wool from Germany in deep purple, looks absolutely stunning but doesn't photograph well;

and finally, a pair of 'wrist warmers' - the latter knitted in the Mirasol wool mentioned above and which look lovely on and really rather different.

And today, I ordered myself some woven labels printed with 'Annie's Lana' (- lana being Spanish for wool - ) and 'Hecho a Mano' - which is Spanish for made by hand. Guess what I plan to be spending my time doing whilst Cesar is building us a house!

Orders taken!

Remember when..

Remember when the days were long and sunny and the nights were balmy - last week, I mean.  On my list of 'things to do before you leave England' (not a long list) was one more trip to the seaside. We took the children out of school for the day and went to Bridlington where the tide was in, the sand was clean and the sea was... well, chilly!


But that didn't deter Ruy and Romy -

How brave they were and how they laughed!

 They also made these lovely pebble people.

We spent all day on the beach and the kids did all the right things, like played ball, made sandcastles, dug tunnels and made little sand cities.
And the sun shone but there were just enough clouds around to keep us from burning. And we took a picnic and ate it without too much extra sand in the sandwiches.

A real day to remember!!

4 weeks to go..

Cesar is in Spain. We wanted to make sure that the rented house that was available in La Urz was going to be OK for us to go to - and sadly, it's not. Rather damp and not suitable is Cesar's verdict. So initially, we will head for Valladolid to Cesar's parents - who very sensibly have decided to be away for the first two weeks - where we will take advantage of village life, with swimming pool around the corner and all conveniences and shops to hand. We'll get back to nature later in the year!
Cesar has found a few places that might be OK to rent for a while but feels it would be much better if we decide together, especially as none of them are perfect and compromise is going to be necessary.
In the meantime, I have had to accept that we will not sell our house before we go (though we MIGHT still find a buyer.....mightn't we?) so we will be putting it up for rent. So if you know of anyone... let me know!!
And in the meantime, I am making various forays into the attic and the garage and beginning to make arrangements with building societies and banks and utility companies as time suddenly seems to be rushing forwards at a greater pace than of late.
Our children are getting excited though I suspect Romy is still not fully grasping the situation. I have had to tell her it's a five year plan because she wouldn't accept us going 'forever' - and now she is convinced we are going for a rather long holiday and that she won't have to go 'back' to school until she's 11! Come September, she may have a rather rude awakening but hopefully by then, we'll have spent a pleasant summer in Spain and she'll be adjusting to the idea - hopefully!

For now, it's packing and preparing - I will have to be very patient for a while until we can start looking at houses, land, barns and corners of foreign fields where we can plant ourselves, grow tomatoes, keep goats and put up yurts.

Wish us luck!!