Blogs

A large part of the reason that we decided to leave Ireland was because we are outdoors people and we found the weather there to be changing for the worse over recent years.  Having spent a lot of money and time creating a beautiful patio area outside our house there, we noticed that in 2016 we were actually only able to spend about 10 days throughout the whole year sitting in it because of the poor weather conditions.  The part of Co. Down where we lived also seemed to be getting wetter and wetter and the seasons were becoming less defined every year.  Despite Mr Trump’s assertion that climate change doesn’t exist, the long hot Irish summers of my childhood are definitely a thing of the past.

We were both craving more daylight, more sunshine and more vitamin D, especially during the long winter months which were always a bit of a struggle for me.  So before we made our decision to move, Eoin did extensive research of weather patterns in different parts of SW France.  Even within the Dordogne there are quite different conditions in various areas.  We finally settled on a specific area which we loved and which also has great weather and we have been living nearby since the start of October.

Locals told us stories of eating Christmas dinner out in the garden some years.  They also told us that February and May are usually the wettest months but that the seasons are well defined and that we will be able to spend most of our time outdoors for about 8 months of the year.  It sounded like heaven to us!

And yet, in recent weeks all the locals are talking about is “le temps exceptionnel” (the exceptional weather) and they don’t mean exceptionally good!  It honestly feels as if it has hardly stopped raining here since the start of November.  Our daily walks with the dogs across the vineyards and through the forests find us all returning covered in mud and often soaking.  Yesterday was so wet and wild that the dogs didn’t even want to go out to the toilet!  So, for the first day since we left Ireland, we didn’t get any exercise or fresh air.  The Dordogne river is higher than people have seen it for nearly two decades and the land is completely saturated.        This photo looks lovely until you realise that is actually an image of the picnic area and car park by the river in Limeuil which has been under water for the last few weeks.  A friend here told me on Monday that 10 of their 12 acres of riverside land are now under water. We haven’t been able to sit outside once in nearly two months now and whilst it is milder than Ireland, the damp conditions mean that we are lighting a fire every day.  This was not what I had visualised for my new life in France! I hope that we didn’t bring the Irish weather with us.

When I woke up this morning to the sound of more rain, more muddy dog paw prints to mop up and the prospect of another wet walk, I have to say that my spirit was struggling.  My mood was low and I was aware of feeling frustration, disappointment and a tinge of despondency.  But one of the great things about our two dogs is that they love their exercise and Delilah especially gets very jittery if she doesn’t get at least 4 kilometres a day (plus her daily deer chase which she loves in the Dordogne!).  So, with great reluctance, I hauled myself out of bed, put on my walking gear and we headed out. Continue reading “A Shift in Perspective”

It’s been quite a while since I wrote a blog and we have had so many different experiences and adventures over the last 12 weeks since we drove away from our old home in Northern Ireland in search of our new life in the Dordogne.

As I write this, however, I am not in France but in Edinburgh airport on the first leg of my journey back to Eoin, the dogs and our new winter rental home near Bergerac which we moved into a few days before I flew out to Ireland last Thursday afternoon.  It has been a mad whirlwind week which feels more like a month.  I flew to Dublin where I was running an event for 160 people through the Positive Living Network which is one of my businesses there.  During my 48 hours in Dublin I also had precious 1-1 time with my Positive Living Network team, a couple of girlfriends and one of my step-daughters.  I then got a lift up to Northern Ireland where I stayed Saturday night with one couple of friends and Sunday with another.  I checked in on Source Wellbeing Centre which is our business in Belfast and had time with our manager there.  I even squeezed in a yoga class with my old yoga teacher before flying over to Edinburgh on Monday!

Once in Scotland I drove up to Dundee to stay with my daughter, Georgia, and her partner and to help them move into their new flat.  Yesterday was spent at Georgia’s graduation from her Master’s degree and then celebrating with my brother, his wife and one of their daughters over a meal and cocktails.

I don’t think I could have fitted more into the week if I had tried!  Georgia said to me yesterday “it hasn’t been much of a holiday for you” and I had to point out that it was never meant to be a holiday.  Strangely enough our day to day life in France still feels like a holiday and coming back to Ireland/UK is more about going to work and catching up with loved ones.

After only 12 short weeks of living in France being here in the UK/Ireland has felt quite alien to me and I have been acutely aware of the much faster, more stressed and less connected way of life which is so different to life in the Dordogne.  I am really surprised that after such a short period of time, the UK/Ireland no longer feels like home to me and there is literally nothing that I miss from my old life (apart from my friends, who are still my friends and whom I chat with regularly anyway). Continue reading “What is Home Anyway?”