In transit

We are slowly making progress into our new life in France. For a start, the snow and freezing temperatures seem a bit of a distant memory as we bask in daytime temperatures of 12 degrees. The other thing that seems different is the daylight. We are no longer surrounded by buildings, we are few hundred miles further South and the clocks are an hour ahead so although it has been grey at times it hasn’t had the oppressiveness of the greyness in England.


We now have a warm room to sit in, our clothes are sorted (nice clothes packed away in boxes and thermals, work clothes and wellies are unpacked), we have a warmish kitchen, an area that has potential as a dining room space, Internet (except for two days when we didn’t have it!) and now we have TV via a satellite dish temporarily installed on the end of the terrace.

On a spiritual level I am not entirely here. I still dream of packing up, dangerous journeys and not reaching my destination but last night I was in France in my dreams for the first time. I have not entirely finished all my business in England and have a long way to go before I have things set up here (Governments don’t understand this, expecting you to be either resident in once place or another; they don’t understand that you can be in-transit for a while even if your body is in one place.)

The cat also seems a bit in-transit as well. Some days he is bold and runs out exploring his new environment, getting muddy and excited; and some days like today he prefers to sleep under the bed all day.

But, at the end of the day I can sit and watch Herman’s sheep as they make their way across the field in search of warmer and lusher pasture, and look out at the tidy wintry field that is South West France.