June was a beautiful month in rural SW Scotland, despite very mixed weather. There was wildlife everywhere and we made steady progress with the endless to do list on the house project.
Continue reading
June was a beautiful month in rural SW Scotland, despite very mixed weather. There was wildlife everywhere and we made steady progress with the endless to do list on the house project.
Continue reading
It’s raining outside, so its much easier to focus on writing, hence two posts in fairly quick succession. We are recovering from a month full of visitors. May is always a busy month for friends and family wanting to visit. I suppose I can’t blame them, May has always been my favourite month for flora and fauna, and in our beautiful little corner of Scotland it is very special indeed. May is when the need for heating peters out, the days stretch out into long evenings, all around the birds and bees are busy and the wetsuit boots are exchanged for summer swimming shoes. Oh yes, and the infamous Scottish midge starts its reign of terror as soon as the temperature rises and the wind drops.
Continue reading
Although we took time out to complete our Finding Enough monthly financial review as usual at the start of May, I am horribly late in turning it into a post. I’ll save May’s musings for the next instalment (which will hopefully be less tardy) but sufficed to say, it’s been a busy spring in our little corner of the world – and its difficult to get motivated to write indoors when its sunny outside.
April is when the daffodils start to be overtaken by bluebells, and this year seems like an incredible year for them, with carpets of blue in places I’d never noticed them before. The bees must be having a busy time. It seemed like a very busy month for the humans too, but when I look back, I am not quite sure what we were doing, as the renovation didn’t move forwards much, and the visitors hadn’t arrived yet.
Continue reading
March saw the snowdrops give way to daffodils in the garden, and we are fortunate that a previous owner planted a LOT of them. I have no idea how many varieties, but there are quite a few, so the flowering period is spread over weeks. They are such cheerful flowers and they come up all along the track to our house to welcome us home. Some welcome spring weather allowed us to get on in the garden this month too, and the solar panels started earning their keep.
Continue reading
The birds are starting to sing, so they must be noticing the lighter evenings and snowdrops too. February brought an occasional glimpse of sunshine and slowly but surely, slightly lighter evenings. A bit of sunshine on your face suddenly makes you realise you’ve been feeling a bit flat. Maybe that’s normal for January, and it didn’t seem depressing at the time, but a hint of spring has definitely lifted my mood.
Continue reading
It was difficult to get motivated in January. After a chilly bright start to the year, short days were made to feel even shorter by seemingly endless cloud and rain. It didn’t help that the jobs that needed doing were not ones I was looking forward to tackling.
Continue reading
2025 definitely didn’t turn out as planned for a number of reasons, good and bad, but our freedom fund had a great year with no active tinkering whatsoever. One of my greatest fears when finally taking the plunge and quitting the 9-5 was large falls in the market in the first few years that we were relying on it for an income. Whilst we are probably not out of the danger zone yet, after 3 full years of early retirement (and not having a large side income from anywhere else), things are looking very healthy so far. While we were dealing with the ups and downs of life, the freedom fund finished 2025 with stellar gains on a year earlier.
Continue reading
Despite having moved into our cottage in SW Scotland in 2023, we hadn’t yet spent a Christmas here. Much to the disappointment of certain family members, we decided to have a quiet one at home this year. When an old school friend asked if she could come and stay for a few days while her kids were with her ex, it seemed a good excuse to keep things relaxed and simple. It also meant there was a little pressure to get a spare bedroom habitable and make the kitchen a bit more functional…….
Continue reading
A lot of rain means no shortage of rainbows, and apart from a brief cold spell, there was a lot of rain in November! The update is very late this month, despite starting it on time. We seem to be juggling lots of minor things and I’d forgotten how much time walking a dog takes out of the day – especially when the daylight hours are so short at this time of year. Then there’s all the fun of the self assessment I have been putting off. The great news is that we finally managed to move back into the house towards the end of the month after the plastering was finally completed, dried and we could decorate. It was about time, as the novelty of sleeping in the shepherd’s hut in the garden had well and truly worn off – especially with all that rain and mud.
Continue reading
October started with a long anticipated trip and proceeded in stop start fashion when it came to completing the energy efficiency work. I am finally starting to catch my breath and feel a little more in control of what is going on around me. At the time of writing we are still sleeping in the shepherd’s hut in the garden, but we now have use of the kitchen and living room, albeit in slightly utilitarian fashion. As we completed the last of our planned travel, we welcomed a new furry family member.
Continue reading
Finding Enough 