We moved into our 1950s farmhouse style home about one month ago. We are still living out of boxes, exploring, decorating and generally fixing the place up. It’s going to take a long time to make it the way we would like.

It is a 2 1/2 acre property with multiple fruit trees, and I have blogged before about my home made pomegranate syrup. Still enjoying it in prosecco by the way!

This morning I grabbed another bucket of pomegranates my trusty wooden spoon and set about de seeding them.

It’s a messy business getting juice from this fruit ,so I decided to sit outside on my back steps underneath a huge pine tree in the shade.  The two dogs came out with me and went off to explore.

A rooster was crowing ,  and all I could hear over the tap tapping of my wooden spoon was… Nothing !

I sat and enjoyed a quiet hour  whilst realising that we had made a very good decision in our move to this home.

Our previous home was a four bedroom,  three bathroom tract home in a cul-de-sac.  Everyone was busy with school and sports, the kids played in the backyard or in our luxurious pool.  Seemed like everyone was in a rush.  The neighbours would come home from work or school and immediately drive  into the garage and shut the door.  No apparent time to stop and say hello.

Three homes looked over into our yard,  so that left very little for privacy (  or chance of skinny-dipping!! )  There were four homes in our cul-de-sac and although I knew the first names of all of my neighbors, I was never in their homes in the eight years that I lived there .  They had been in mine though!

You might be getting the impression I did not enjoy modern home living .  I felt the pressure to keep my house pristine ,  be the model neighbor ,  wash my car on a Sunday like everybody else and have my children dressed immaculately whilst sipping organic fruit juice.

Moving here has been a release from all of that.  My kids can make as much noise as they want, ride their bikes until sundown, climb trees and get as dirty as they like.   Because our home is older I don’t feel it has to be perfect, it has to be lived in , and loved.

No one is looking in in our yard, and I have the privacy I yearned.

I am looking forward to planning and planting a vegetable garden in the spring ,and to getting a few chickens for eggs. I’d like to plant a few more trees ( apple, cherry and avocado).

By no means am I Ina Garten or the Pioneer Woman ,  but I am embracing nature and loving my surroundings.

Country living was only 2 miles away , but we found it. ❤️