Tuesday, 15 July 2025

Making moves about making moves

Gavin has once again floated the idea of me moving permanently to the South-West. He said, "I can't get that bloody place right and the only time it ran anywhere near well was when you went down and took over."
I mean, it's nice to feel like I was useful, but I can't believe that in my brief spell in Devon (or Dorset, I'm still not sure which) I made that much of an impression and that much of a difference. The trouble is, this has coincided with Philippa going through a weird, unexpected spell of feeling restless and fancying a change, so I've got two different people throwing ideas at me about relocating, at a time when I have been feeling very settled and very content where I am. It's a gorgeous time of year to be in this area, with the beaches on hand, and the natural world around us looking resplendent. Everything is full and green and glorious and there are butterflies and bees and an abundance of birds of prey and everywhere I look there is beauty. Why would I want to move away from that?
Gavin's answer is, "For a bit more money" while Philippa would say it would do the boys good to experience different areas and not just see one house for their whole childhood. My argument to her would be that stability in your youth is a good thing and that the local school is a good one and why uproot unless absolutely necessary?
My worry, too, is that this might be an underhanded attempt to increase the size of our family. The 'third child' debate has been shelved for quite a while now, but I know it hasn't disappeared from her plans completely, and I can see a scenario where we get a slightly bigger house and then she says, "Well, now we have another bedroom...."
I remember reading a very old book where someone said that civilisations will grow to fit  their available surroundings. So, if you only have a small set of caves in a small valley, your village will maintain its size, but if you then move to an open area with space for more huts, you will automatically breed more to fill the gaps. And I imagine that can be true for families too, so if we suddenly have a house with room for another young 'un, the temptation will be to create that young 'un and push the Chesworth Brood number up to five. Which, as I have written quite often on this blogsite, I do NOT want to agree to. I'm not being selfish, I'm not being obstructive, I'm just being true to myself and my intentions.
And as for Gavin? I'm hoping this will be a passing fad, but it bothers me that he keeps bringing it up, even though I've clearly said I'm not interested. And being a paranoid, self-deprecating sort of cove, it makes me think that maybe the staff here are fed up with me and are trying to get me out of the door, and this is a way of removing Rory from the locale without sacking him....

RC 15-7-25


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