Well as from today our house is officially sold, we accepted an offer weeks ago but nowadays it seems to take so long to tie everything up legally, and I didn’t want to mention it here in case I jinxed it. I’ve seen so many houses with sold signs on them which have had to have them taken off again when the hopeful buyers got knocked back for a mortgage. So after 26 years in this house we’ll be moving out – but we don’t know where to yet as there aren’t many suitable houses up for sale. People seem to be staying where they are at the moment, unless they absolutely have to move.

It took seven months to sell our house and of course as soon as we did sell it I had a bit of a panic and was wondering if we were doing the right thing in downsizing and leaving all our family memories behind, but that feeling didn’t last too long. It’s time to move on to pastures new, it’s exciting and scary at the same time though. Anyway, several people were thinking positive thoughts, crossing everything and even sending up prayers for us, so my thanks go to all involved, we couldn’t have done it without you I’m sure!

The whole process of selling a house has completely changed since we bought this one and not for the better either, it’s much more stressful now. My brain has been in a fankle (tangle) since the beginning and I really haven’t been able to concentrate on much, reading light fiction has been a life-saver and it was only this week that I felt able to tackle doing a jigsaw puzzle, a winter pastime of ours. What do you think of it? It was very difficult to do and I almost gave up on it, but I persevered and Jack did most of the sky, shades of mainly grey in an Edinburgh sky.

The puzzle is of the entry of George IV into Edinburgh from the Calton Hill, 1822, apparently organised by Sir Walter Scott. It was painted by John Wilson Ewbank (1799-1847) Below is an image of the original.