A Day In The Life In The Country
There's going to be a follow-up video to this video, and it's going to be called Should I Move To The Country? Because I fear that I might have made moving to the country seem like a no-brainer decision in my latest Day In The Life; I feed the chickens as the sun comes up, walk the dog as it sets again, do some work at Babington House and walk around the garden, completely unobserved by another soul, wearing pyjamas and a pair of walking boots. It seems (at least to me) pretty perfect.
To be fair, I could have really hammed up the joys of life in the country - pulled a pie from the AGA whilst a muddy dog snoozes by my feet, filmed myself lying under the stars, the total and utter silence broken only by the manic hooting of the Noisy Owl Collective that lives in our garden. I could have filmed Mr AMR (or his silhouette, being the secretive man that he is) bringing wood in for the fire or doing something practical in a muddy Landrover, if he owned a Landrover, or I could have filmed the house from across the hedgerows and green fields, the windows warmly lit and the chimneys swirling wisps of smoke.
And even though I didn't do any of these things - I just told it as it is - I sometimes suspect that, to many people, life in the country might seem like an obvious, "dream life" decision. Not always so. Which is why I want to follow this up with a video I've been meaning to film for a while; a wild and honest ramble through the pros and cons of moving to the country.
Because for me, it was something that I've always wanted - I hate noise, I hate crowds, I hate the sound of trains and planes and automobiles; I crave fresh air and open spaces and I like relatively big distances between me and my neighbours... But for some, it's not the right decision at all - and even though I don't regret our move one bit, there are still things that have surprised me about moving away from London and into the sticks, things that have (I'll admit) dismayed me ever so slightly.
So I'd love to get down a comprehensive list of dos and don'ts, pros and cons for those who are thinking of taking the plunge - if anyone else has done a big move to somewhere rural, please feel free to add your own comments at the bottom of the page and I'll try to include those in the video too.
For now, here's my Day In The Life. Kids, pets, chickens, mud and a rare trip to the local Soft Play. (I have recently discovered the benefits of Soft Play centres. They're amazing, aren't they, once your kids are old enough to throw themselves down a foam ramp without breaking their necks? You look up every now and then to check on them, but otherwise you can just about get through the whole of Elle Deco before you need to get back home for lunch...)
https://youtu.be/Md5BQlSekJE
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