Having lived in our house for just over a year, I’m so happy to be back in the countryside. Don’t get me wrong, I adored living in Cheltenham – it was such a great place to live with amazing parks, brilliant bars, and generally just a beautiful place.
I spent so much time in Pittville park – I’d walk from my flat to the park at least three times a week, usually armed with a newspaper and bottle of water ready to set up camp and watch the world go by.
Whilst I enjoyed time on my own, I loved spending time with all my crazy friends and we all enjoyed spending time with Princess Skye, when the rents went away. If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll know that whenever Skye is around, she is absolutely doted on and as you can, not just by me!
As nice as the park and walks are, I spent lots of time out on the tiles making many memories (some of them rather fuzzy!) and loving life.
For the most part, I was single in Cheltenham up until the last year or two, but one of the great things about that I got to show the Handsome One (HO) Cheltenham and all the places I loved in the Cotswolds. Over the years, I always lived quite centrally in Cheltenham, so on a sunny Sunday, we would to pop to Sandford Ale House, enjoy one (or three) pints of white beer and laugh our way into the night.
However, I’m a country girl at heart. I grew up in rural Shropshire and the first car I drove was a Land Rover with a trailer on the back. I would drive around field, stopping at bales of hay so the more helpful people in the field could just chuck them in the trailer. Believe me when I say, it took me a while to get the hang of it as I kept stalling the car every time I stopped!
When I was younger I had riding lessons and managed to convince my parents to buy me a wild Welsh Mountain pony, who bit my Dad the first time he met him! I spent the whole of my Summer holiday that year digging out ragwort from the field (the doctor down the road let me use the field for free in return for keeping it tidy), where Fletcher (my pony) and Rosie his companion sheep kept their distance until the last week of the holidays when Fletc snuck up on me and bit my bum!
Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures of Fletcher, unless there are some hidden in the loft, but I do have a picture of his friend, Teddy who he always used to go crazy at when he walked by! Teddy still lives in the same field, but he’s definitely got a bit more grey over the years, which is why he deserves extra carrots.
During my childhood my weekends and evenings, would be spent mucking out Fletc, braiding his mane in pink bows (he loved it) and then peddle like mad to go to see Sue, who’s horse I would ride. Willow is a beautiful 16.2hh thoroughbred cross, who’s Dad was an extremely successful show jumper, so as you can imagine she was beautiful to ride. I remember in the winter getting on my bike to go to Sue’s and it was so cold, that I’d have jogging bottoms on over my jeans with a hot water bottle tucked between the two!
When I wasn’t looking after my pony or riding Willow, I would get on my bike with the other children who lived in the hamlet (think there was six of us in total) and go to the river to build a swing over it, and try our hardest not to fall in as we didn’t want a telling off by our parents. Normally it was so warm that if we did fall in, we’d be dry by the time we peddled home or raced down this track.
As I got older, I would earn some pennies by potato grading in the farmers field, which strangely enough I loved! When the weather was too bad to pull potatoes, we would help in the barns by stacking hay or cleaning out the cows – I was probably in the best shape of my life at this time, but I definitely thought I was fat. Typical.
Yes, I had much more of a sheltered life than some of my other friends (which you can see in the pic above I’ve more than made up for!) as they were going out years before me, but my proper first night out was the week before my 18th birthday. However, I really couldn’t care because I loved my childhood; spending time with horses, being outside, working, cleaning tack and learning from Sue how to cook.
Now living back in the countryside I really feel like I’ve come home. Even though the house is still a work in progress, I love it; I get so much out of walking Bella around our village, when I still in the garden with the HO I still marvel over the views and I love the freedom I have to pick my vegetables or walk down the lane to pick blackberries or elderflower that I can later use to make my own produce.
I’m sure some people will think I’m mad and much prefer a different way of life, but at the end of the day, we’ve all got to do what makes us happy.
A x
Abi in the Garden 