Well. I don’t know if it’s “up” per se, but we’re moving to a place where our neighbours will be wine farms, not pig and chicken factory farms, so at least the air will smell better! If you haven’t heard or guessed already, Andrew and I are moving to Stellenbosch at the beginning of August. Whilst on our four week European trip last year, we spent a lot of time talking about some deep married couple things (it’ll happen when no one else around speaks your language) which involved our future and where we wanted to live and what dreams we wanted to make a go of before we had kids, and if we did have kids, where we would want to bring them up. My vote for Amsterdam was vetoed by Andrew and his hatred of European winters (dammit) and so I compromised with the Cape. We’ve both lived in the Midlands for five years this month and while it will always be “home” for me, it ain’t going nowhere. Poor Andy who was only supposed to be here for a couple of months before heading to the US, has really made the most out of living in a small town and has learnt some invaluable lessons here through starting and running his own business. Thanks, my love, for making my home your home for a little while. I too, have jumped from working with my dad in the horse-racing business, to starting this blog, to working in the wedding industry and then going out on my own with my freelance social media and copywriting work. We’re hopefully both now at the stage where we can move forward together with our own talents, dreams and business ideas to create something awesome.
So right now our house is upside down and half-packed up in boxes. Change, as much as I want it, is always a little bit stressful for me, so I’m meditating and yoga-ing up a storm to keep calm. I’m also trying to spend as much time with my family before I go, as well as taking long walks on the farm with the hounds who are going to really miss having 250 hectares to run free on. Speaking of hounds, we’re planning on driving down to Stellies in one day with all three dogs and Abby Cat in the car, so please put us in your prayers! The next few weeks are going to be interesting, but there is so much to look forward to… beaches and wine farms and vegan restaurants and yoga classes and mountains and old friends and art galleries and festivals and concerts and renovating and redecorating and simply enjoying/hating the changes that make life fun and exciting.
So what about this blog? Obviously, I won’t be musing in the Midlands anymore. I’ve been quietly working away at a new space for my words and thoughts and pictures for probably about nine months now. I’ve changed the name about three times and the theme twice (thanks to Andrea and Nicola for all their patience), so as soon as that baby is up and ready I will let you know 
Will I miss the Midlands? Of course. Who knows, we may be back here one day. I will always miss the place of my birth and there is nothing quite like the feeling of driving up the N3 from Durban and hitting the forests of Balgowan to make me feel like I’m truly home. But life is too short for what-if’s or could-have-beens and we are more than ready for some new adventures, new people and new places.
Thank you to the talented Kate Martens for doing this amazing shoot of us and our hounds on the farm – I’ll treasure these images forever Katie! (Hop on over to Kate’s blog to see more here.)
