I apologise for the recent lack of Blog Posts. If you follow me on Twitter (@KarenSDavies), you will know that I have moved house and it has been a long, drawn out process. My husband and I were renting a place for the last seven years, and in seven years, you tend to accumulate a lot of stuff. I’m sure you are familiar with the type of things I mean: engagement presents, wedding presents, Christmas presents, plus, a selection of charming ornaments that spoke to me from a table at the local craft fair. Then, on my husbands side, we have tools, gadgets and for some reason, receipts – a lot of receipts. Most recently, we have also acquired a rather large assortment of baby-related items.

While on the subject, we should certainly not forget the mountain of books – a mountain we started growing in the early days of our relationship. If I haven’t told you the story of ‘Us, Hay-on-Wye, Baskerville Hall, and the transportation of fifty books’, then you should call back to the Blog another day – I just might write a memory post all about it!

Anyway, you will be pleased to hear that ‘said stuff’ has all been successfully moved, or if not, disposed of. I can’t say it has all been sorted and now sits neatly in a designated drawer or cupboard in our new house, because that would be a lie. Some items (such as kitchenware) have been organised, others have not. And that’s ok, because this is our ‘forever home’ and we have time to make it right.

It feels like now is the time to relax. I keep saying to my husband ‘we should take a spa break,’ which is utter nonsense because a) I have never been on a spa break and don’t actually know what one entails and b) we have a baby. We will, however, be visiting my parents before Christmas, which I’m really looking forward to.

In the meantime, some kind of tidy up will have to be attempted, as it will be my daughter’s first birthday in a week’s time. We plan to have a few people over and wouldn’t want them to trip over any of our hastily placed boxes . . . We also need to purchase a dinner table and a few more chairs.

Despite the ongoing tasks, we are settling in to our new home very well. There are a lot less draughts and everything is sparkly new.  Sometimes this causes alarm, as I tiptoe around my glass-topped cooker, wondering how to erase the stains.  Yes – I have bought hob cleaner.

But away from the domestic – the move has inspired some new poetry, so that’s very positive.  I’m looking forward to sharing some of my writing at this Saturday’s Write Club Meeting and I hope to remain productive as I juggle birthday parties, Christmas and family catch ups.