Roads to Joy

So, in much the same way as I trundled along down the High Street of New Galloway back in March with a For Sale sign on my back, shifting it from our new home to the small cottage we were putting up for sale, this past Friday I lifted that very sign from Spring Cottage and trundled it back! Completing not one, but two house sales in the past six months, and one purchase, has been something of a worry, now relieved.

Our neighbour across the way spied me with the sign on my back and immediately enquired, ‘Oh, you’re not leaving already?!’ The only proper answer was a cheerful laugh. ‘No, not at all! I’m using the stake for something else!’

A growing tree in the new-to-us garden has been leaning, unsupported, since we arrived. I wedged the stake, after removing the signage, into position and tied a stout cord around the little tree’s trunk, propping it more or less upright. In the weeks to come, I may be able to reinforce the stake, and straighten it even more.

Considering that the word ‘stake-holder’ has become more or less common parlance these days, it’s not at all surprising that I should be compelled to consider this metaphor rather closely. We are stake-holders now in what we hope is our last independent residence. Nothing, of course, is forever, and even with the best will now we may find that different circumstances conspire in future to change our living arrangements. But our ambition, put it that way, is that we’ve now occupied our ‘forever home.’

So, as it turns out, we’re using our equity stakeholding that we built up in the North Pennines for something else. We’ve watched our family grow up on the wild fellsides of Northumberland, and now we’re embarking on an exercise of watching the garden grow here in the moderate and gentler climes of Dumfries and Galloway. It wouldn’t be life, of course, if there weren’t projects ahead and exciting prospects to imagine.

And trees to prop up, shrubberies to trim, and laughs to be had.