At last...some news from.....abroad?

It's been a long time since I last blogged...a long long time, in fact, what with six weeks on the roam in England over the summer, then an instant change of life styles that has left us all in a whirl and without a ready means to communicate efficiently. Now though, we have easy access internet and are back to earth. Unfortunately no land line yet but we get a wireless broadband connection via the farm, for which we pay a small monthly charge, and are investigating a USB phone for skyping.

A very quick summary then. As you know we were here in England over the summer and I happened to get talking to a Head teacher at Princes Risborough who persuaded me to come and work for him. We turned our lives around, left for Spain, packed a few nick-nacks and, leaving our little Spanish house in the hands of friends, returned to a new start in teaching in the UK. Needless to say this has been a whirlwind introduction. I cannot belive we have already had a half term holiday, yet I am still constantly working late into the night in an attempt to keep my head above water and remain one step more organised than my classes.

By providence we have been able to rent a small farm cottage in Forty Green belonging to one of the Austin clan. For those in the not so sure bracket, Forty Green is an extension of Skittle Green next to Bledlow, and over the fields not far away is Henton. So it is a real return to pastoral England for us. We have three small bedrooms and very low ceilings. There is a large garden and an outhouse and a shed. We have a small brook running through the garden and a well with water in it. The house is surrounded by tall ash trees and hawthorn, and the approach down the lane is very much as one might imaging a 19th century country scene. The cottage was probably built around the turn of the century and has a slate roof and black ended square bricks interspacing the nice orange red ones like some of the buildings in Thame High Street.

Being now based in Bucks for living and working, the girls are attending the school where Jan and I both have work in Princes Risborough. Everyone is settling to a pattern and getting to grips with all the changes. It's been quite tough, but we have leaned to be resilient and to enjoy life in all its circumstances.

Due to the discovery of freecycle we now have a small sofa and two arm chairs and can entertain visitors. So if you are in the area and fancy a nice walk or a jar at the Lions, or even a nice walk followed by a jar at the Lions, do pop in!

I'll post a few photographs in due course so you all know the house when you see it. In the meantime we had better get on with creating an introduction of ourselves to our new to be addition to the family. What an exciting time!