We Are Wild,

 Okay, I know we're not really. My partner is too into his computers and networks and I basically think I'm going to melt when it's raining, but we are both into camping (though I'm not sure about his definition of camping as compared with mine!) and paddle boarding and wild swimming. Well, kind of. I like wild swimming but swimming isn't something I'm particularly good at and I'm a bit stressed out by deep water, so I don't tend to do it a lot, and I don't tend to go very far, and I only tend to do it when I'm in a wetsuit because otherwise I get too cold... but I am a total water baby. I love being in the water or on the water or generally around the water. 

When we started looking at buying a new house together there were a few things which were priorities. We wanted something that would be at least a little bit of a project, we wanted something within a certain geographical area so that we were closer to my partners family and we wanted some outdoor space. 

We found a beautiful place that was on the edge of a canal and I could have hated everything else about that house and I would probably have still wanted it, but we decided that the inside space was too cramped and the space outside didn't work for the cars that we have or the way that we use them (in a rotation, because we have a couple of toy cars...) so sadly it would have needed to come down in price a significant amount before we would have considered it, because the only way to "fix" the issues inside would have been to build a big extension.

We saw quite a few different houses, though not as many as most people tend to go and see before they find that one, but then we were driving somewhere and went past the house we finally bought and I remember saying 'What's that?' and my partner thought I meant a bungalow that we had seen and that didn't really fit the bill. It took a little bit of searching to find it, but when we found it, I think we knew that it was potentially lucky, because the advert did not do it justice. The house is incredible, and the garden is just breathtaking. At the very back of the garden there is access onto a river, there are fruit trees all down it and there are lots of other trees, too, like silver birches, sycamores, a couple of conifers and a beautiful oak tree. 

The first time we walked down there, snow was sitting on the ground, and there were wild rabbits hopping about everywhere. There was something ultimately magical about it and we completely fell in love. Since moving in we've been able to put up our CCTV cameras, and because of the type of cameras we have, they've basically become wildlife cameras, so I can keep an eye on the dog in the garden without having to go out with her (which is great considering how terrible I am at being on my feet at the moment), watch the adorable number of cats who are knocking around, but we've also seen rabbits, a squirrel, a fox, a hedgehog, robins, magpies, blackbirds and more. It's glorious, because the place is so wild and so incredible. Honestly, everything about it makes me feel like this was always meant to be our home.