Tuesday 13 October 2015

Back where we started ... the best laid plans!

The reason for the deafening silence on the blogging front is that having moved to Scotland a year ago, as some of you know, we have now moved back to Norfolk! 

We had the best time in Edinburgh but our family is here and the distance proved too unmanageable in practice.

It will remain in my heart as a very special time when I made some very special new friends, one of which was through this blog. 
Thank you Penny for your company in and out of all those galleries and charity shops! 

Work in progress - looking forward to glazing this one!
So, with no regrets whatsoever about our little mid-life gap year, I am now making pots in yet another workspace and feeling just a little disoriented!

Have pottery - will travel....

The experience has made me wonder what the word 'home' really means. Is it different for everyone.  Is it 'where the heart is'?  Is it in a landscape which inspires you?  Is it something you feel inside, no matter where you are?

Kicking through fallen acorns on my runs this week ... and so the oak leaves.

Life is a journey and it's not always linear.  
As one Scotsman once wrote:

"The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men
Gang aft agley"
Robert Burns, 1785.  
To a Mouse, on Turning Her Up in Her Nest with the Plough.

Drying out before first firing....

I have had the chance to explore a beautiful part of the country and a fantastic city and it has been a joy.  But, as another chap wrote:

"We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time"
T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets.

Thing is though ...... I'm not sure this is the end of my exploration .....  but one thing's for sure, life's never dull!!

What does 'home' mean for you?  


x Cathy







13 comments:

  1. Home is where my kids are :) It's really nice to have you back blogging and I am looking forward to seeing all your work in progress once it has been finished. That Norfolk vase is lovely.

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  2. Well, I'm glad you enjoyed your gap year, but two such upheavals inside eighteen months would make you wonder where home was!

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  3. As long as you are happy that is the most important thing! The good news is that you gave it a go, and if you hadn't you might have always wondered, this way you know for sure where home is! I hope that you are very happy!! xx

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  4. hope you are happy in your new (old!) home xxx

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  5. Interesting question, I have only ever felt at home in Shropshire where I was born and bred. I have tried to live elsewhere but Shropshire is definitely where my heart is. It is the most beautiful of counties, after all ( I may be a little biased). Fortunately I married a man who feels the same. One day we may venture somewhere else but I suspect not very far or for very long. I hope you settle back in Norfolk soon. Sending love xx

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  6. Hope you are soon well settled back in Norfolk - a fantastic county and one very close to my heart too. Maybe we will get to meet up there sometime!

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  7. Hello and thank you for visiting my blog. Home for me is a place that "tugs at my heartstrings". Mr. C and I are in the process of downsizing and finding where we will live next...so far nothing has "tugged" at our heartstrings". Your pottery is fabulous. Creative Bliss...

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  8. Oh my, had no idea that you are such a grasshopper :) Wherever you are - make yourself at home.

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  9. I hadn't realised you'd come back to Norfolk, whereabouts? I come to north Norfolk, near sandringham every 2-3 weeks to see my parents. Home for me will always be this area of south Suffolk. I've lived here for 22 yrs now, the longest I've lived in any area. Have had several homes in the same area and wherever I've travelled to, coming into the Sudbury area always feels like coming home.

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  10. Hello Cathy. I spotted this post last week and then it obviously disappeared and something just now jogged my memory! Well, good for you - it can be difficult to admit to making a mistake although you made good use of your extended holidayin Scotland! For me home is where all my things are. Can't believe I have lived in the same house for 20 years because before that I was a bit of a nomad! Good luck in your new home - where abouts in Norfolk, I lived there during my nomads period - I hope you will be very happy and productive there. xx

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  11. Two moves in one year, eek. I do hope you soon settle into your new Norfolk home x

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  12. Hello you! Sorry for the very late comment, I am so behind with my reading. Thank you for the mention Cathy, I loved those days too, and I am somehow sure that those were not the only galleries (or charity shops!) ,that we will visit together! X

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  13. Must be feeling a bit hectic with you, but so often I think we regret what we don't try, not what we try but it doesn't work out. And special new friends are definitely worth some upheaval! For me, home has got to be where husband and children are, but I do think I would also really struggle to live somewhere that wasn't rural now, and I can't imagine living somewhere too far from swimmable water either! The trouble is that we are very spoilt where we live now. But then if there comes a time in the future when we have to prioritise and compromise, then it'll just be a matter of making the best of it, which I think is another element of 'home'.

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