Every day I'm here in Halifax, my affection for it grows and I'm glad for the move.
It's different.
Yes.
Definitely different from Dorset. But that was the point - to seek something new.
Recently, though, I had to go back south to take final readings on the gas, water and electricity meters and to hand back keys to the house.
This might have been painful. I might have had a crisis. I might have changed my mind. I might have decided I didn't want to live in Yorkshire after all. Disaster! But I didn't. I wanted to blow my life in Dorset aside like a dandelion clock. Done.
Rather than sleep in my old house void of furniture carpet lifted etc. etc. . . . I lived in a tent. There were ground level plants everywhere.
And so there are in Halifax! It's just that I'll have to pay more attention!
Summer in Dorset is full of colour.
And in Halifax too.
I'm here.
(The performers in the top photo are part of Circus Raj - one of the re-opening events at The Halifax Piece Hall.)
16 comments:
So glad to hear. Both places are great - the dandelion and the leaf pushing up through the crack. Then and now. Nostalgia is just as good as it used to be.
That was a good marker in the sand. I'm so pleased you felt the pull back to Yorkshire after all your hard work moving there. Keep seeking out interesting perspectives on plants, Lucy, your posts are always so thought-provoking and educating. X
It is great to hear that you are warming up to Halifax. I'm happy for you.
Good to read that you're happy in Halifax. xx
Glad you are enjoying your new life in a new town. Sarah x
Just caught up with all your Halifax posts. All very exciting and uplifting.. Good on yer, lass.
Hi Lucy, I've just been reading back through your posts about your new adventures in Halifax and pleased to see that you're enjoying Yorkshire life. It's a rather large contrast - coast to urban/countryside - but I'm sure you have exactly the right outlook to discover more and more that you love. Personally, Yorkshire (the wilder parts!) is a county that I love. I lived near Tadcaster, between York and Leeds, for a few years in my teens. Cx
Oh it sounds as if you are settling in Lucy. Life must be different but so much new territory to explore.
Different for some people is scary, but I am so pleased, Lucy, you are rejoicing in the newness of things. I have always lived in an urban / suburban environment and there is lots of nature here but as you show sometimes you have to look in the cracks between pavers and don't get a whole field to appreciate. The plants and critters that live in cities are heroic and resilient too.
I'm glad that you're becoming settled in Halifax, but hope that you keep Dorset in your heart. We were there a couple of weeks ago, just for the day and I always miss it when we're away.
Rather late in replying to your comments - but that is the same with more or less everything at present. Perhaps in two years time I might have finished moving boxes and moving in!
Chris P - I'm ridiculously pleased even to see dandelions growing on the walls. I didn't know what to expect when moving here but there are loads of plants I'm familiar with - quite different from a recent visit to Cornwall where I saw lots of plants I didn't recognise and different grasses growing in the kerb. I would have expected Dorset to have more in common with Cornwall than with West Yorkshire, but that doesn't seem to be so.
Hello Countryside Tales. Still glad of the move and definitely not pining. It's good to have new things to explore - and I feel very much at home here.
Hello Pat. Thanks. Yes. Definitely delighted to be in Halifax.
Hello Flighty, Down by the Sea and Colleen. It's quite exciting doing something this dramatic - making this distant a move and in the opposite direction from what people might expect. Still not quite knowing how to take photographs in this different light and landscape and not having a clue how to stop slugs eating my allotment . . but although I expect I'll have qualms from time to time - it's great to be here.
Hello Colleen. It's very different and very interesting. Have just come back from the National Children's Museum in Halifax (EUREKA!) where they opened the museum for one evening for 'grown ups' to come and see what's there. It's a kind of glorified play space with a science them. It was fun to be able to walk down the road and talk to a robot, pretend to drive a lorry, try to jump over the sensors in a bank vault . . . I even had my hand set on fire - real fire without getting burnt. It's great to have new things to do and so readily at hand.
Hello Caro. There has been some talk of Yorkshire having a mayor like London does. For a 'newly arrived' the concept of Yorkshire is a strange one. York is so different from Bradford and Sheffield is a long way from both; and the countryside is incredibly varied, lurching from beautiful to dour depending on where one is. Have yet to meet Tadcaster.
Hello Anna. I'm finding it difficult not to feel pressed to explore everything in a rush - to make myself realise that I will have years and years in which to discover what's here.
Hello Catmint. I've lived in London and Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Edinburgh and each is very different from the other. Oddly, of these, London is the leafiest. Here, trees are hidden in great gullies. I've found a canal but have yet to find the snippets of river that emerge and disappear throughout the town. It's very varied but the common theme seems that nature is hidden away. Even parks lurk behind walls. But having lived next to the sea since for nigh on twenty five years . . . actually, I can't say the word 'sea' without getting a bit tearful. But beyond that - I love it here.
Tim. Yes. Dorset. The plan is to return for a holiday next summer. Given that one of my problems with Dorset is that I was always being taken for a visitor even though I lived there . . . I think I will feel more comfortable as a holiday-maker than a resident.
We walked by the sea today.
Life has got busier since we hike and it's been a month.
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