Eviction drawings 2024 to 2025

In February I finished my eviction series, the drawings aren't very neat, but as I'm going to keep them it doesn't really matter. They are the memory of a very difficult time in my life, that miraculously turned into happiness.

"My Now House" Lynton 2024

"My Never House" 2024, when life was at its darkest and I was researching the price of caravans and the cost of storing all our possessions.

"My New House" Combe Martin 2025

2025 Catch up

 2025 Combe Martin, in no particular order.

Low tide on Newberry beach, the summer dog beach just round the corner from the main beach.

              

Hunting of the Earl of Rone, May bank holiday.
I'm still a bit confused as to what went on, but for 4 day's the villagers marched round the village dancing and drumming, whilst looking for the Earl, they found him on Monday, marched him down the village to the beach, backwards on a donkey, then threw him in the sea.

They marched past our house several times, the last photo is taken from my balcony of the school with the children congregating for their part of the march.

            

The sunsets are spectacular from the main beach.

                                                   

      The family came to visit, we had breakfast at Bobby bakes, well worth a visit if you come for a trip.

                                               

Then Fred & James took us to Cornwall to celebrate our joint wedding anniversary's for the night. We stayed at Gurnard Head, which is a bright orange dog friendly hotel. On the way home we went to the Eden project.

                   Siri's family came to visit, then they came back again for a second visit.

Summer sunset, watching the sun go down with a bottle of wine, what more could you want in life.

The beach is spectacular with caves and rock pools and the dogs absolutely love it.

         

                        

I spent months clearing the ivy out of the front garden, cut the corner of the lawn off so we can squeeze 2 cars on the drive. Siri had to be taught "off the flowers"

                        

                           And we had a new balcony balustrade as the old one was rotten and dangerous.

Lots of other small things happened, none of them truly memorable, but they all add up to a perfect summer on the beach, in the garden with our family.

Life is very different here, we used to have an extensive social life that I sometimes miss and knew every face in the village. 

We don't have it here, we know and chat to our neighbours, we chat to tourists on the beach, life is very easy, there are no expectations, I finally feel at peace.

Its been a long time...

 It's been a very, very long time since I posted so there's lots to catch up. I've been too busy living and enjoying my new home to do much else, except for gardening, swimming, walking the dogs etc

I recently started posting on Instagram again, until I realised the search only brings up sponsored posts and profiles, so I quickly gave up again.

2024

We moved on the 19th of December in a storm, a lot of the roads were flooded, at times it was doubtful whether Phil would get back from Lynton with the next load. 

We were so happy to be safe again nothing mattered.

My new back garden

We had Christmas at Daisy & Sam's, with all our children (except our missing one) and Sam's family. I can't remember what we did for new year, maybe drank too much wine, ate too much cheese and fell asleep on the sofa, so different to years gone by, celebrating in Lynton & Lynmouth.

Photo's on my Phone 5th of September to 10th of December

 This is a deeply depressing blog post, but it does have a happy ending, I felt I couldn't write about my misery until there was positive news. It's been a long time since my last post as for the past 3 months we have lived in limbo. Every day the same, a constant sense of despair, pointlessness, feeling that we had no future, nothing to do, but stalk the rental sites desperately trying to find a needle in a haystack.

We took the dogs to the beach a lot, the wind and the rain and emptiness fitted our mood.

We searched for a house in Lynton or Lynmouth or even one of the out laying villages, but there was nothing. All the rental houses had been sold for second homes and Airbnb after the pandemic, we've been here for 12 years, moved several times and never had a problem finding somewhere local.

So resigned our selves to the fact we would have to leave our home and community and look further afield.

 

We won second prize for the best allotment for an allotment we have to give up.

We walked on the beach some more, all the time grieving the fact that these things would not be ours anymore.

However leaving was made slightly easier as Daisy had already gone, she and Sam found a beautiful house down a quiet lane in Hele, just outside Ilfracombe.

The flat upstairs was so quiet it felt like part of me was missing.

I drew my "Now house", its A3 drawn in fine line pens, so you can see all the pen strokes, normally I would tidy them up, but to leave it messy fitted my mood.

Sandra and I walked our dogs everyday and as all good friends she listened to my misery.

I finally decided to go to the Drs and was prescribed antidepressants, they made a huge difference, it meant that I didn't burst into tears every time someone asked if we'd found somewhere. They didn't solve the problems, but gave me the impetus to do something proactive. 

So rather than stalking the rental sites finding nothing we wanted, we finally started applying to look at houses.

There weren't many that were suitable, most wouldn't take pets or didn't have a garden or were a top floor flat or most of insulting of all were the short lets of holiday rentals, owners looking to make a bit of money over the winter. We carried on packing and stalking the sites. I soon discovered that agents only show the houses to a few people, so you need to be on the phone as soon as something suitable comes up.

I drew my "Never home", because that's how likely I felt we would find something. In the whole 3 months we only found 3 houses that we would want to live in, we applied for all 3 and were turned down for 2 of them.

BUT we were offered the 3rd one, I still can't believe it's going to be ours, it's a 3 bedroom house with a garden, garage and balcony over looking the sea. 

Even though its perfect it has 2 faults, the first is it isn't in Lynton and the second is it doesn't have a woodturner/open fire.

Its in Combe Martin which is 10 mins drive from Daisy, not too far from Lynton so we can still spend time with our friends.

I can see my house from the beach.

And the beach from my balcony. It means we can walk the dogs on the beach everyday and swim and sun bathe in the summer.

We move in 9 days I still can't believe it's going to be ours, I'm still not sleeping, still feeling anxious, but the emptiness has been replaced with plans for the garden and trying to work out where all the books are going.

The moment I stand on the balcony and look at the sea will be the moment I can relax.

Photo's on my Phone 23rd August 2024 to 4th of September

What do you do when your life is collapsing around you?

Go on holiday and forget it all for a few days!

So we went back to Suffolk to see our families and cuddle my boy and his husband.

We also spent time with both of our parents, Phil's nephew, sister & brother & my aunt, 

We were only gone 72 hours, but in that time we drove 16 hours, slept for 14 hours.

Visited 3 pubs (including The Jolly Sailor at Orford as seen in the photo above)

Visited 2 beaches, Walberswick  above where a stone/tooth/finger incident occurred.

Plus 5 hours in casualty, there was an incident with a stone, Siri's mouth and Phil's finger. Siri ended up with a chipped canine that sliced Phil's finger badly enough to need stitches. 

Moral of the story is always make sure Siri is sitting in front of you and waiting before you throw anything.

We both waited patiently outside for 5 hours while Phil waited patiently inside, only to be told they couldn't stitch his finger because it was an animal injury.

Beach number 2 was Shingle Street (our old home). You can almost see our old house in the trees across the marshes

And then we drove home, luckily the 18 mile traffic jam was on the other side of the M25.

On Sunday it was Bert's 7th birthday, his 2 uncles gave him an iguana and great Grandad gave him a remote controlled model boat.

The iguana ate fish & chips with us on Ilfracombe harbour beach and the model boat in the words of Bert is the best present in the world.

Now I'm back to the depressing job of packing our lives in boxes, while we desperately try and find somewhere to live.

No drawings last week except for a couple of badly drawn quick sketches, however I will be at the Lyn Valley Market at Lynton Town Hall on Saturday. 

Please come and say Hi, but please no sympathy unless you want a flood of tears.