The new residents in our garden have the best view in the place!
I’m running a bit late with this update, as almost as soon as I had updated the numbers for last month, we were overtaken by a life event that has rather dominated the last few weeks. I will talk about it more in next month, but I suspect this update may be a bit more brief than usual as a result.
March saw the beginning of spring creeping in. I have always loved this time of year, but in SW Scotland it is particularly special. Each week a different flower or bird appears, nests start to be built and new voices join the dawn chorus.
February was a bit of a whirlwind. A very positive one, but a whirlwind nonetheless. Our 3 week San Diego house sit continued into the first week of the month, and because we thought it unlikely that we’d find ourselves in that part of the world again, we tacked a short road trip on the end of our sit. After a lot of consideration of options of where to go, we opted to check out some very contrasting wilderness from what we are used to. Desert.
The home in San Diego we looked after while the owners were away
January was a month of huge contrast, as we spent the first 2 weeks at home in Scotland after returning from Christmas and New Year down south, but then the last 2 weeks were spent on our most adventurous house sit to date – in San Diego! We enjoyed the winter sunshine in Majorca last Christmas, so kept an eye out for winter sits somewhere sunnier this winter. When California came up, we applied. We got on well with the homeowners on a video call and were invited.
As 2025 rolled in, I started crunching the numbers on our second year of ‘retirement’ and reflected on the investment journey that got me here. September 2024 marked 10 years since I made my first investment, so it seems appropriate to consider what is possible in a decade as well as just what we’ve achieved in the last year. I should clarify that in September 2014, I wasn’t starting from zero. I had been contributing to corporate pensions since I started my first full time job in 2000 and I had made a minor investment in unit trusts in 2002, through a work-provided financial advisor, when I received a small inheritance from my grandmother. I was starting from just over that magic £100k level when I actually took an interest and added it all up. Technically this was not my first investment, but it was the first I had taken control of, and responsibility for and that felt daunting to say the least.
The flip side of long summer days in this part of the world are the short winter ones. On the shortest day, the sun didn’t rise until 08.40, and it set at 15.51. That meant a lot of sunset walks, as time got away from us and we rushed out before it got dark. Some sunsets were well worth the effort.
It has been a busy start to 2025, so I am a bit behind where I wanted to be with my review of 2024 post. I have started crunching the numbers, and plan to publish it before it’s time to review January spending.
A frosty morning just before sunrise – the view from our garden
I’m a bit late updating this month, as I’ve been distracted playing with lino printing again, now I have a bit of studio space. There’s a long way to go to have it set up how I want it, but I set myself the challenge of making my own Christmas cards to get me started. This gave me a deadline when it came to last posting dates, and it took priority over blog writing for a week or so. Looking back, we got up to quite a lot in November, both at home and visiting friends in Northumberland.
Autumn brings some beautiful light, but shorter days
Autumn is in full swing now and despite the best efforts of storm Ashley, the continuing mild weather has meant that the beautiful autumnal leaves have stayed on the trees for a little longer. Apart from a weekend dash down to Shropshire for a friend’s birthday party, we have been at home all month enjoying watching the season, and the wildlife, changing. The swallows have left and been replaced with fieldfares and redwings feasting on rowan and haw berries. We have started to hear the prehistoric shriek of jays again (not sure where they disappear to in the summer). Rut season has brought occasional roaring red deer in the evenings, culminating in spotting the silhouette of a red deer stag in the field behind the house one evening. We even spotted our first red squirrel running along the wall at the back of the ruined barn.
Despite being ill for a couple of weeks, I managed to squeeze quite a lot into September. The theme was definitely swimming, as I figured that I could still complete my sport relief 10k challenge in the month if I put my mind to it, even though I was out of the water for 12 days of it. So, I put my mind to it, and did it.
I was rather helped by a week of summer in the middle of September. Scotland enjoyed 27 degree sunshine while the rest of the UK struggled under torrential rain. It does happen that way round sometimes!
This may be a briefer than usual update, as September has brought with it a dose of shingles. It is not an experience I would recommend and has rather reduced my stamina for typing, as well as everything else…….. I am hoping that the anti-virals I have been prescribed will reduce my likeness to Worf from Star Trek very soon 🤒
A big chunk of August was spent visiting family. It was my nephew’s first birthday and we decided to make to most of our time south of the border, catching up with other friends and family before heading home. As all my family is now in the South West, and Mr Wombat’s family are in the South East, we ended up circumnavigating England, heading down the M6 and back up the A1. This was our first long-distance trip in the EV, so we were interested to see how we would fare with public charger availability and cost.
The lighthouse at Point of Ayre in the north of the Isle of Man
We started the month with a week in the Isle of Man to look after 2 miniature schnauzers called Stanlee (grey) and Gracie (black). Their owners were new to house sitting, but were very welcoming and very organised. We were greeted with glasses of champagne and they cooked us an amazing meal the night we arrived. We had use of their hot tub (that they had cleaned out specially) as well as their very spacious home. They even have solar panels and an EV charger, and wouldn’t let us reimburse them for charging our car. Despite the weather being forecast as a washout all week, the rain stayed away until the last day and we had a lovely time exploring the island with the dogs.
Finding Enough 