The Biggest Possible Change….

I’m waiting for a heart valve repair, which should return me to regular mountain biking, amongst other things. I’m now told that the operation should be in January. Maybe being retired has given my wife and I too much thinking time because we have now decided to make the biggest possible change to our lives.

The reason for a change is principally because our only son decided to set up in business in remote northern Scotland. He soon met the love of his life and will get married shortly so there’s no chance of him returning to Lancashire, nearly 400 miles to the south. I don’t believe that relationships are unaffected by distance or meeting no more than a handful of times a year. We want to be a part of their lives in future so moving suddenly seemed like a good option.

Of course I will be giving quite a lot up to tear myself away from the area I’ve lived in for most of my life. The mountain biking here is excellent. I also have a busy social scene based around scooters.

My life doesn’t only involve 2 wheelers, there’s also the garden, which we’ve established over the last 27 years.

Wow! A picture paints a thousand words, though it takes words to apologise for the washing in the last photo.

Fortunately in moving away there will be plenty to keep us excited. We are buying an old fisherman’s cottage on the seafront and will have to make it our own. We love interior design so see the work as a good thing. Similarly the garden is a blank canvas. Being way further north many of our favoured plants my struggle to survive but we’re willing to learn. Fortunately the garden is sheltered from the sea by the house, so may not have too many of the difficulties of a garden on the seafront.

If I drive 20 to 50 miles away there is some well thought of mountain biking. Locally, at least according to Strava, there seems to be virtually no mountain bike activity. With no law of trespass in Scotland at least I’ll be able to explore local walking routes legally, not that this ever stops riders in England!

The picture at the top was taken from just in front of our new cottage. What could possibly go wrong?