We've been in Brassington for six months now and over breakfast this morning me and him outdoors had a chat about how this moving t'country lark is going so far. Here's some of the pluses and minuses that we came up with.
Day by day the sense of strangeness and alienation diminishes - we're becoming familiar, orientated, not just in a landscape, a village, but in relation to the services and resources that make living manageable. Post boxes, post offices, bus timetables, cycle routes, bin collections, banks, cash points, cake shop, paper deliveries. Library, hairdresser, car repairs, doctors, gym, garden centres, building supplies, etc etc. When you live in the same place for a long time all this stuff becomes easier and also gives a shape, a framework to the area you live in, these regular routes and well-known places become part of who you are, personal traces and tracks, like animal scent marks, smelling of home, normality, self. It's surprising how much of this you can find out and establish in six months in a new place and this helps us feel more grounded.
I don't miss the city - closed in-ness, pressure of people, traffic, air pollution, constant background noise, people knocking at the door all the time to sell you energy or cable services. Anyway I can go back anytime - in fact I must have been back at least twice a month for the last six months, seeing friends and having meetings. R still misses the sense of being a Manchester man, he misses his political involvement and colleagues and being involved in a big diverse northern city. I've told him I'm happy for him to go back and spend a few weeks or even months there if he fancies a change! But it's all still early days . . . check back in another six months. We both miss living in our friendly cul-de sac with lovely neighbours, being able to pop round for a walk, cup of tea or a pint, we particularly miss Friday night drinks and meals with close friends.
On the other hand we've seen most of them here. Lots of visitors, walking together, sharing this place, more time rather than lots of times. And there are people here too, kind neighbours, friendly people. There are lots of things going on, some obvious, some under the surface, most of which we don't have a clue about and so we watch, wait and keep our incomer noses clean.
More minuses -
No shop.
More car use - this is not a carbon neutral place to live.
No mobile signal in the village.
We're moving on with practical changes to house and garden.
We gained planning permission from the council last week to
build an extension and garden workshop plus changes to the inside of the
house. We've cut down two overgrown trees - Leylandii
- which were dominating the garden and obscuring light and views. R did
one, helped by our neighbour C, and the other bigger one, was
taken down with speed and efficiency by two local men. 
A big plus for me - one that I've been surprised by - is the joy of having an open perspective, (improved by the tree cutting): wide sky, hills, distance. Just standing at the window or in the garden, because we're quite high up you can see much of the village with its chimney pots and roofs, the fields around, trees, grass, sheep, lambs, cattle, and to the south and west, the layered landscape of the Derbyshire dales. Like most people, I like the idea of a 'view' but this doesn't fully explain why it's so compelling to see a long way, the eye drawn upwards and outwards to the farthest point, trees silhouetted on the lineof the hill, the horizon, buzzards circling in the air rising above the village. One perfect spring day with hot air balloons sailing over the rooftops.
More pluses -
Walking. Walking. Walking.Hills and steep garden and paths - makes us fitter.
No car alarms. Birds that sound like car alarms. Real weather.
Wirksworth - nearest small town, liberal, arty, energetic. Cafes, shops, farmers market, transition town, Arts festival.
The Derbyshire Eco Centre
Two good village pubs - The Miners Arms and The Gate.
Jackdaws and Rooks.
Broadband - not superfast but fast enough.
And now that it's spring, the social calendar is hotting up. Jubilee hat-making for the over 60s in the village hall. (What is a jubilee hat exactly? Is this a national thing? Or just Derbyshire? Are we all supposed to wear hats?) We're booked in for a quiz with bar in the village hall on Friday. And there's a village planning meeting next week, an Open Gardens event in June and a Wakes Week with its very own Wicker Man in summer. See Brassington Burns. Look out all us incomers.
