Memories

Well quite a bit has happened over the last few days.

I've taken advantage of an old man's generosity.

I, together with my husband, have been completely forgetful and chosen to blame my husband entirely.

And I discovered my brother wants to move house. He's found a house he wants and has put in an offer which has been accepted and all he needs to do is sell the house he owns currently. And that's what is a bit strange for me.

Ian and his family live in the home in which I grew up. I know they've redecorated, extended and improved the place a million percent but it will be strange to say goodbye. Dad sold it to Ian for a bargain price after Dad remarried at the age of 69 (six months after Mum died - long sad story).

I moved into the house in the early seventies and remember things like the veggie plot at the bottom of the garden, long since gone. It wasn't very well tended but nonetheless provided blackcurrants, redcurrants, raspberries, strawberries, gooseberries, tomatoes and runner beans.

There was badminton and boules on the back lawn, Angus the Skye terrier who lived in the back garden, the rabbits: Cheeky and Rambo and the guinea pig Peanuts (known affectionately as Neaputs), the Puffin dinghy that was hardly used and was suspended from the garage ceiling, the Mirror dinghy that had a home at the side of the house and so on and so on. More memories than I could ever write down but I guess you'd expect that for 12 years.

There's my old bedroom where, if I sat on the windowsill, I could just see the Blackwell's house and I used to imagine that Ian Blackwell might have the room that faced our house.

But all these memories won't be sold with the house. I'll keep them.

And I'd like to provide a decent link so you can view the property details but the estate agent isn't that obliging. The house is in Abbotskerswell and is being sold by Woods in Newton Abbot: Woods website. 4 bed detached and yours for just £345,000. My Mum and Dad paid £16,000.