Chasing Ghosts...

ooooo

Backblip

Once Alan left for school, I got myself organised then headed off to pick up my best friend Agnes as we were on a misson.

As I've mentione previously HERE and HERE, the part of the village we grew up in has been slowly demolished over the past few years to make way for re-generation.

It's taken a while, but now all the houses are gone and as Agnes' mum's house was one of the last to go, we decided we had to go for a final look before the rebuilding begins.

We'd both seen it during the demolition process and were fairly blase about our visit but we were both taken aback by how emotional it was for us.  Seeing a flattened landscape where once all the houses stood was quite a shock.  The streets seemed so tiny!

I parked the car and we got out and without the houses for reference, it took up a moment or two to get our bearings.  The postbox (as linked above) is still there as is the BT phone box, so they helped us figure out what used to be where.  I knew exactly where my house used to be as the demolition team have left the beautiful big fir tree at the end of what was our back garden.   I was so pleased to see it!

We had such a laugh remembering growing up there.....age 9 walking along the street pushing pretend prams and chatting about what our husbands had been up to, picnics in the garden and running through water scooting from hosepipes,  playing for hours in the bluebell wood you can see in the distance, only returning home to eat then heading straight back out again for more adventures.  Complete freedom with our parents automatically assuming we were safe unless they heard to the contrary.   Simpler times it seems to us.

And of course getting picked up from our prospective houses on our wedding days, knowing we would never return to live there and that our time as residents of this little village had come to an end.  

Oh yes, we laughted a lot as we remembered the fun times, but we each also needed a moment to ourselves to cope with the welling emotions we were experiencing as we rememberd the ghosts that live in the spaces behind the lamposts.  

Do you know...

PS The small wood beyond the field at the top left of the photo was granted World Heritage status a few years ago and just beyond this wood is where Agnes and I both want our ashes scattered once we shuffle off this mortal coil.