I want to like people again . I just do not like people who are driven above all else and if you haven't lived in metro land in the last 5 years you just wouldn't understand how greedy and selfish and shallow it has become. All the people I like are moving away and all say the same as I do its horrid how selfish and shallow is here.
I have chosen my short list as areas I know well and I like suffolk was on the list but to many met commuters . The west country was there as some distant family that way its just to much competition and to short a season for lets and to busy in season. So Norfolk and wales with an eye on Lincolnshire and shropshire is where I am . We have been to both loads and i like them . I do not mind people just in dribs and drabs seems perfect.
P.s I am not brave . I am a coward hence living in the same place for over 45 years and never really travelling . I research all I do to the nth degree I cannot plant a seed get on a train without spending hours researching . Its taken me years of research contacting holiday company's knowing the variables hours on google earth and trips to places to decide on my choices. Please if you know anything about the areas that may help tell me but di not knock my decision its the bravest thing I have ever done and it terrifies me which is why I asked for your learned opinions on the pros and cons of wales and Norfolk as I need to drill down on an area.
I understand about screaming kids , as was surrounded by them. When I went out to my local shop the first time I was amazed how many people said morning and smiled!!! My village may be too busy for you as we have all the amenities for the surrounding villages , but it is so nice just to hear birdsong.
I have lived in a lot of places in the UK,plus France and Spain.Now in Wales,and I have never met such wonderfully friendly helpful people,this is South Wales,a mining Valley,everyone speaks,we have lovely neighbours( albeit not gardeners)A fantastic bus service,and every supermarket within 2 or 3 miles,yet it feels very rural as we look across to the mountains with grazing sheep,fantastic place! But then I like Mountains!
The whole truth is an instrument that can only be played by an expert.
People have been kind enough to take time to answer your query with good, honest, well intentioned comments and you seem intent upon finding fault with them all. Maybe that's part of the reason you've not moved in 45 years.
It's funny, as someone who loves peace and quiet, a bit of romance and loves places where the little darlings are non existent , my first thought was Shropshire, especially around Ludlow. I think someone mentioned it further up the thread, and l think you did too nin.
@nin, my intention has not to knock the plans. Apologies of my tone was too flippant or sardonic.
"If you mean I am bitter and twisted then you have got me, I am. My
ambition is to be a hermit and I am happy talking only to the dog.
Better to be happy alone than miserable surrounded by those you do not
like."
I was responding to this comment, concerned that you are suffering on your own. When I said that I would worry about isolation, I was speaking for myself and my own experience of struggling solo. I was wondering if there is some help to be had. I tend to isolate when things get bad and it's one reason I have stayed in the hubbub of London. I dream of a cabin in deep woodland, but I'm not sure, if I moved there, that I would ever come out again. Again, I am just speaking for myself.
I salute your bravery in making such a big move.
This poem by Mary Oliver has been playing loudly in my head for the last few weeks. If it's not useful or interesting, just ignore it.
A dream of trees.
There is a thing in me that dreamed of trees,
A quiet house, some green and modest acres
A little way from every troubling town,
A little way from factories, schools, laments.
I would have time, I thought, and time to spare,
With only streams and birds for company,
To build out of my life a few wild stanzas.
And then it came to me, that so was death,
A little way away from everywhere.
There is a thing in me still dreams of trees.
But let it go. Homesick for moderation,
Half the world’s artists shrink or fall away.
If any find solution, let him tell it.
Meanwhile I bend my heart toward lamentation
Where, as the times implore our true involvement,
The blades of every crisis point the way.
I would it were not so, but so it is.
Who ever made music of a mild day?
I have lived in a lot of places in the UK,plus France and Spain.Now in Wales,and I have never met such wonderfully friendly helpful people,this is South Wales,a mining Valley,everyone speaks,we have lovely neighbours( albeit not gardeners)A fantastic bus service,and every supermarket within 2 or 3 miles,yet it feels very rural as we look across to the mountains with grazing sheep,fantastic place! But then I like Mountains!
To those who feel I am negative about other areas I am not i started with a uk wide search and have slowly whittled Down to places I love. I was just looking for pros and cons of the two as cannot rent a house for six months in two places at once to field test it.
Sorry if I have come a cross badly I often do. Its just this is my hopes and dreams and very well planned there is not a part of the uk that has not been considered seriously . Its just not practical to search the uk in its entirety and not whittle ot down and that's what I have done to two places we both love.
Posts
When I went out to my local shop the first time I was amazed how many people said morning and smiled!!! My village may be too busy for you as we have all the amenities for the surrounding villages , but it is so nice just to hear birdsong.
Maybe that's part of the reason you've not moved in 45 years.
There is a thing in me that dreamed of trees,
A quiet house, some green and modest acres
A little way from every troubling town,
A little way from factories, schools, laments.
I would have time, I thought, and time to spare,
With only streams and birds for company,
To build out of my life a few wild stanzas.
And then it came to me, that so was death,
A little way away from everywhere.
There is a thing in me still dreams of trees.
But let it go. Homesick for moderation,
Half the world’s artists shrink or fall away.
If any find solution, let him tell it.
Meanwhile I bend my heart toward lamentation
Where, as the times implore our true involvement,
The blades of every crisis point the way.
I would it were not so, but so it is.
Who ever made music of a mild day?