Another beautiful weekend.

Jamie's been bricklaying for the first time ever - I told him I could channel my late bricklaying Yorkshire grandfather, but somehow he didn't think I could pull it off.

I guess he's right.

The space he's been bricklaying is the gap from removing a door, and I'll update more on this project next week.

But for now I'm reaching for metaphor - brick by brick, we've finally landed home.

It feels like a circuitous route - from coast to the UK, to many countries, and then to the hinterland, and back to the coast again. I'll never leave again. I've talked about my heart being stitched here with kelp and as I write this, my hair is salty from the second swim of the day.

I even surfed yesterday - those that know I've had hip issues will be happy for me I imagine. It was small and kinda slow so I had control enough to pop up on the board. To say I was grinning like a mad mermaid is an understatement.

We're constantly saying how lucky we are - and in some ways, it is luck - lucky that we bought at the right time twenty years ago and our acreage went up in value so we could do pretty much a direct swap for a small place on the coast. Lucky that our marriage is strong enough to withstand the stress it took to sell one place and buy another.

But it's also hard work. All those years teaching to pay off the mortgage. All that work on our marriage so that it could weather the storms. All those rooms painted, paths gravelled, floors sanded. So many screws and sheets of plywood, rocks carried, garden beds dug.

I don't think our old house would have sold for anywhere near the amount it did if we hadn't worked on the garden and the house as hard as we did.

And I don't even think this new place would be as lovely as it is if we hadn't worked so hard to renovate it.

Of course, it's a work in progress. There's still a hole in the wall.

But on we go, brick by brick. Supporting each other. Dreaming together. Getting shit done together.

How lucky we are.

This post is in response to the Weekend Experiences question: what have you had to work hard for and eventually achieved? Explain what it was and how you did it.

With Love,

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