Devon.
After a lot of house-hunting, umming and aahhing, a whole heap of soul-searching and should we/shouldn’t we midnight talks, we’ve decided that Devon will be the Mansi family’s new home.
While London was a loyal bedfellow for the last decade, with the arrival of Country Bebe it felt right to prioritize open spaces, a bigger house, clean air and grass beneath his tottering toes over good shopping opportunities, great bars and even better coffee. Of course London is more than that, in fact half our family and all our friends are still there so the wrench has been tough. Far tougher than I had imagined however was leaving the things that can’t come and visit on Bank Holiday weekends: the streets I’ve pounded a thousand times, the architecture (St. Peters in Notting Hill, I wish I could pop you in my pocket and bring you with me), snowy walks on the Heath with our family labrador, impromptu weekend breakfast meets with equally hungover girlfriends… Sigh. It’s been hard. Really hard, I miss London like another person, I want to know what it’s been up to, what’s new and what I’ve missed.
It’s very easy to want out from an extortionate mortgage, someone’s sweaty pit on the morning commute, a job that zaps all your energies and leaves you with precious little to spend on friends and actually enjoying the city’s haunts. Yet once you’re out of the daily grind the romance of the place tugs at your heart strings no end. So, now more then ever, Countryfille.com will be my quest to indulge my city vices in my new bucolic home.
Ah yes, the home. Stripped back to the bare bones, we’re taking it slow and restoring our little 50s, 3-bedder to its former glory. We’ve always been suckers for mid century furniture so our belongings transpose well into the new place. The 1/3 acre jungle of a garden is slowly appearing through the brambles and over the coming months I’ll be sharing our progress, for now here is a little corner of countryfille.com’s new abode.
