The Sale of the Century

Where to begin as I have so often said.
This photo was taken last July, just a week before I discovered GOH was having an affair. The sun was setting over my life and I didn't even know it.

Odd how things turn out isn't it.

It's just 8 weeks since I moved four miles to a totally new life. To a modern, "grand design" type of a house, all glass, open plan, wood floors, built into the hillside with views to die for and surrounded by 25 acres of grassland. A farm girl and her meadows cannot be parted it would seem.

A new job; offered by the Agents who sold my farm. I now show lovely country homes around this area of Suffolk. I adore it and the new people I meet. Many of whom it has to be said seem to be the position I found myself last year. Despite the gloom and doom that one reads about the property market at the moment it seems that many people are divorcing or separating and whereas one house sufficed, now two are required and thus
in some small way keeping the housing market afloat. A sobering thought to ponder on.

I sold the farm to a lovely young couple with two small girls who I know will love and enjoy the place as we had. I felt no sadness on the day of moving, just a tremendous relief and no tears. The only tears were from GOH who came back on the day to collect a few things and the realisation of the finality of the whole event came home to roost. I had one small "turn" in the middle of the lawn when the money failed to materialize from my buyers and their removal vans were lining up in the driveway. I totally lost it but got my money before the afternoon was through; the mouse turned.

I have spent the past few weeks updating this house - it had not been lived in full time for its entire life - 12 years - and needed a good clean, paint and spruce up. The lawns of course have been striped. I did get possession of my mower!

I will write a blog about my new home soon with photographs etc. I think it and I were just waiting for each other. I had watched it being built out of the hillside some 12 years ago never thinking in a million years one day it would be mine.

I have found many new friends en route and lost a few old ones, as I knew I would.

The mouse still roars.

GOH = galivanting old husband - not gorgeous older husband!

Selling the Mouse House

Where to begin. The dapper man who steps out of his pristine car muttering about the "prevailing winds". I, being a tad clueless at this stage say that as we are so high the wind does tend to blow up here fairly! He was asking as he wondered if there would be room to mow a short airstrip through the wheat field for his Cessna!!

Or perhaps the lady who stepped into what I class as quite a large farmhouse kitchen saying it was far too small as she regularly seated 30 in the one she has now, and would wish to do the same here! Blimey, I get in a state if I think I have to cook for six!

I have met some lovely people over the past three weeks or so as I begin the painful process of selling our lovely farm. Not really the right time of year I know to start marketing such a property but my hand was forced as most of you will know by GOH deciding to start afresh with a new model!! I am taking some comfort from the fact that the house he has moved to is turning out to be a bit of a nightmare - unseen rot and him being a Surveyor and all!!!

So, with every approaching new "viewing" the process of coffee making, wood burner lighting, hoovering, cats being booted out etc etc starts. It takes a good two hours to do a basic viewing here with the house, buildings and farm. Nearly all my prospective buyers so far has been non farming folk who now wish to farm and so the process has been rather slow. Explaining crop rotation, set aside, wheat, barley, beans and sugar beet takes some doing without them glazing over at some point. Or me for that matter.

My agents have been very good and are vetting and weeding out those people who just want to come and spend a pleasant couple of hours out in the country and are allowing only those folks with proof that they have the money to spend. It has helped sort the wheat from the chaff so to speak and saves a huge amount of every one's time it has to be said.

My new house awaits me in a neighbouring village. I have exchanged on the deal and have a few months if need be to complete so I am very lucky. I am slowly becoming emotionally detached from this place which is what needs to happen. Having spent some 17 mostly happy years here and being somewhat forced to leave, it is hard.

I have not blogged for ages as so much has been happening with the house and everything so I thought it about time to bring you all up to speed. I have had a couple of serious offers but as yet they are way off the mark and it is far too early to start to panic. So folks, if you fancy some serious mowing and you know how I spend a lot of my summer days, and you want a move to Suffolk, its rollover day tomorrow on the Lottery. Get those tickets now. I have bought mine, I may be able to stay and have the other house for the weekends! I may even mow myself a landing strip and get a Cessna, prevailing winds permitting of course.

The Pool

The water glistens, shimmers
not a ripple stirs,
Privacy prevails
Totally alone I dive into a world
of warmth, softness, freshness, blueness
A cleansing overcomes me,
as I slice through the surface
up and down, back and forth
not thinking, not caring
letting the day wash from my tired body
Finding the strength to once again
face another October day.

The final week

It's been a funny old week
in "Suffolk" speak
In seven days GOH goes
on his way
seeking his current dream
leaving mine in tatters
I am not however too distraught
I still feel that sense of freedom
that somehow this was meant to be
Three discarded wives cannot all be
at fault
Bags are being packed, skips filled,
lawns cut, cats fed
Some of life goes on as normal
parts take on a surreal feel
Meals somehow cook, shirts get ironed
cars washed, fields ploughed
All the time the air hangs heavy
with gloom and expectation in equal measure
I am down but not out
Friday looms.

The Start

Here I stand at the start of a
very long and rocky road to
freedom, alone, unknown and
untried.
Scared that what I have started
I will never be able to finish
He chose to cheat, I chose to let
him go
Would it have not been easier to forgive and
forget
To hope that every time he left the house
He headed to someplace he should
I feel deep in my heart that he was lost to me
long before the day I discovered a receipt for a dinner
I did not eat, and diamonds I do not wear
bought by a man I no longer know
So, as the starting pistol fires
I am off, running, searching, turning back,
looking forward, making mistakes
seeking the fork in the road that will take
me to a place I deserve to be
to once again smile, breathe and feel like me.

Confessions of a serial mower - getting back to normal

Normal, what is normal I wonder anymore.

Well its been quite a summer and not one I will forget in a hurry, if ever.

Suffice to say, as I cannot blog about it yet, my life as I know it changed for ever on Saturday the 4th of August. Well it had changed for ever before that date; I just didn't know it!

My health has improved funnily enough as my personal life has gone "down the pan" as they say here in Suffolk. So there you have it, Mousie is about to be on her own. GOH is moving on to pastures new and with whatever strength I can muster I intend to cling on here to the farm.
It may or may not be possible but I will give it a bl++dy good try. Sorry folks I don't usually swear but am sure you will allow me this little one!

I have not been able to blog of late; partly it is true to say because of harvest and all that entails but also because of this huge crisis in my personal life. Some of you will be aware I know and for the rest I hope you will now understand and forgive me for not going into the details here in the public eye.

So, in the coming months I will probably subject you to all sorts of comings and goings here,the sale of things if and when they happen, etc. etc.

I have a huge network of friends and family - much larger and kinder than I ever imagined actually together with my cyber support and am getting through the days somehow. Some are dreadful and some quite frankly have been fun. Fun at a time like this seems an odd expression but sometimes the thought of my impending "freedom" feels like perhaps it might be fun.

I should in fact be in Aldeburgh for lunch today as the Suffolk Three, but Suffolkmum and Tattie have gone together as I have to go back to the hospital for another scan today. Nothing dreadful just to check another part of my back it would seem. I have some discs that are a bit ropey and I think they are checking others higher up my spine.

So, a brief and not very explanatory blog, and I hope you will bear with me and read between the lines and just send me a hug now and again.

Despite all this, I have not lost the urge to mow!!! love mousie

At the Races

Every week should start with a day at the races don't you think.

Perhaps it always does for some, but not usually for us Suffolk farming folk. So it was on Monday, we got all dressed and dolled up and headed up the A12 to Gt Yarmouth and the race course there, overlooking the dunes and the beach.

Some very close and dear friends sponsor a race in memory of late relatives, and hire one of the executive boxes overlooking the course and invite around 25 friends to join them. So here is a picture of what the inside of one of these "boxes" looks like. You have your own bar, waitresses and on this occasion a running buffet of hot and cold food. Champagne and canapes on arrival, lunch at 1.00, and then afternoon tea, as if you would still be hungry. If you spot anyone you know in there, don't tell on them!!

Its all frightfully pukka, with a loo opposite, the Tote down the hallway so "one" doesn't even have to venture out of the building to bet if "one" didn't feel like it! GOH of course loves the thrill of the on course bookies and is out of the door like a whippet after every race. He said he had a few winners but was very coy about the exact amount. He did look very smug at times.

The view afforded from the box is first class, and if you don't want to stand on the balcony you can watch the race on the TV provided inside the box. I noticed some people never left the

table. I was not one of them. I am far far too nosy and like to people watch, and chat, and peer into next door's box to see who is about.

I remember when I was invited to a very smart Box at Newmarket, where the neighbouring Box was that belonging to the Al Maktoum family, the famous horse owning Dubai rulers. Such wonders and treasurers I have never seen in a house, let alone a Box at a race track.

The steward there told me that the box has to be fully staffed, flowered, etc etc always, just in case the family visit. It even had a tented ceiling.

Anyway, Yaarmuth, as they say, is a bit more real life! The wind fairly whistled off the North Sea, and off shore, the 30 or so giant wind turbines were turning silently in the distance.

The world and his wife turn up - some folks looking as though they were straight off the beach - perhaps they were, and others, wore their Sunday or Monday best! GOH wore his linen suit and could easily have been at home at Goodwood with Blossom! There is a "dress code" for this stand but not elsewhere, so there is much to watch! Girls in tiny pink dresses and high wedges and rather older husbands, all looking very pleased with themselves! Red faced men, children, babies, mums and dads, lads. We could peer down on them all.

My task for the day was to judge the Best Turned Out horse for the said sponsored race. Whilst the horses are being paraded, I had to stand with a Steward and judge which one looked the best and had received the most attention and work by its groom. It was difficult I found this year as there were 15 runners and only a couple really stood out. I was in two minds which one to choose, when a stunning grey, almost gun metal colour, entered the parade ring a tad late and it just looked fabulous. It was plaited up, mane and tail, had oiled hooves, shone - no - more gleamed in the sun and there was my outright winner. The handler was late getting into the ring as she had a difficult horse to contend with from the previous race. She was very excited to win, I handed her the cash prize, and off she went. The horse actually finished second in the race. I didn't get time to put an each way bet on, so I got nothing! Well I got lots of attention in the ring actually and I did rather enjoy the moment.

I tried to look as if I knew what I was doing. I don't really, but have picked up tips etc over the years on what to look for. I couldn't for a moment do it myself.

So, if anyone invites you to a day at the races, don't hesitate to say yes, especially if it's a Monday - what could be a better start to the week. Say Yes Please, if they have a Box.