Favourite Place to Live

[Plantaholic]

I love to watch a programme called the Lakes and Dales. It is mainly a farming programme set in that area. I love the Dales and envy people living there but I also love Cornwall. Of course I am lucky to have finished up living in Bucks since 1960. I wonder if any of you ladies would be happy to have lived elsewhere in the country. Daisy, I know you have lived in various places and chose Hants after you and OH retired.

[Oma]

I like where I live I cant imagine living anywhere else ,
We moved from the town I was born to another town only 10 miles away that's as far as I would like to go ,
Having said that I do like to visit other areas but at heart I am a home bird

[Nanto2girls]

I wouldn't want to live anywhere else either.
My birth place is only 3 miles away, and hubby was born 3 streets away from where we live.

[Daisy]

Plant - I think WeeGranny is the real globe-trotter, but yes, I have lived in various places. We moved here long before retirement - OH was sent here with his job in 1983.

I have liked everywhere we have lived. They have all got some special memories for me. The place I would least want to go back to is Bedfordshire. We were happy there and our DS2 was born there, but it's too far inland, and all the people we made friends with there are either no longer there or no longer with us. I would happily live in North Wales again for everything from OH's family to my own childhood memories and the places I like. The same goes for the outskirts of Stoke-on-Trent.

But where we live now is stunning - very beautiful, very special and unique. We live in the Forest with the coast on our doorstep.

I never wanted to stay in one place and always had itchy feet, so I didn't mind moving around. Before I met my OH I would have loved to have spent a few years living in the south of France, but it wasn't possible. I love the climate, the way of life, the food and the wine, and the sense of community and family in the small villages.

I would hate to live in a city, or even a large town - I like villages and being able to get into the countryside easily.

[Gemini]

I was born in York and lived around here my whole life, apart from about 3 years when I lived in London, Middlesex and Sussex.
Once we moved back to York, I haven't felt inclined to leave.

I feel very lucky to live in York. It is a beautiful historic city, with theatres and museums. We are midway between London and Scotland, and Yorkshire's varied and lovely countryside and coast is all on our doorstep.
I grew up several miles from York and always longed to live in town. Once my then OH, myself and baby DD returned to York I got my wish.
I lived in the city for over 30 years, until we moved to the village we now live in, 4 miles from York. I found the move away from town a wrench. It's been 10 years now and I am sort of used to it!

I love Northumberland too and that's not far.

There is only one place I have ever visited that I felt I could live apart from here. That was Stratford on Avon. I love it. I would never move away from my family, but if I had no ties it would be a place I could see myself living.

[Plantaholic]

Thanks for your comments, I am very happy living in Bucks but it has become very much a commuter area and too much new building going on, we have lost so much of our countryside, at least we still have the woodland. We are also being affected by HS2 which we are annoyed about. My OH always had itchy feet, at one point he was offered a job in Malta but then Malta fell out with the British government and so the job fell through. He was offered a Lecturers post in Oxford but declined it.

[Grauntie Mag]

I wouldn’t want to live any where else. We started married life in Yorkshire (which I love), and then back to Kent, then Surrey and ended up in Essex. People jest about Southend, but it is the best place, so much to do, easy access to London etc. If we go for a walk along our bit of seafront on a sunny day, it’s just beautiful.

[Gemini]

Grauntie, I have happy, youthful memories of Southend.
I have only seen it in the dark though! In 1974 a group of us, students at the time, decided to go to Southend one evening, late. Only one of us had a car, a mini, so 6 of us crammed into the car and drove there from North London, and had a walk round. It was fun and exciting. And unsafe, but we survived!

[Nanto2girls]

Some folk like to live in the middle of nowhere, but not me. I like to visit the countryside but I couldn't live there.

[Lizzie48]

When I first moved here, many years ago, we lived in a small bungalow/office, it was the start of what is now an industrial estate, it was lonely, I was lonely! My ex was working in France, luckily his cousin/boss lived close by, they had 5 children, in fact we lived in their house with them the first few months until we could move into the office building. One of the sons had to give up his bedroom for us, I often meet him in the village and he still mentions him having to move out of his room! They were all very good, the eldest 2 would go shopping with me etc.

After 2 years we moved into a flat, what a blessing that was, warm water out of a tap! In the old place we didn't have hot water, that with 2 young children, never mind, I coped.

When I got a divorce we moved here and I have been here ever since. It is home. It is close to Rotterdam, Den Haag etc and 10 minutes on the bike into Delft, we have woods, lakes etc all 5 minutes away. The village has grown so much in the last few years, so many new estates etc, we are lucky in this area with plenty of green etc. The shops are all close, when they are allowed to open it will be handier. I do like living here, difficult at first though.

[Gemini]

Some folk like to live in the middle of nowhere, but not me. I like to visit the countryside but I couldn't live there.

Nan2, I love the countryside for holidays and visits, but prefer to live in town. I only agreed to the move to this village as it is a big village/small town with lots of facilities, and less than four miles from town

[Daisy]

I hadn't thought about this before, but apart from when we lived in Worthing and Merseyside, we've always lived near the edge of the town or village, and in Worthing we weren't very far from the beach. I like open spaces better than the convenience of a nearby shop.

Lizzie - it's surprising what we cope with when we have to, but warm water comes pretty near the top of must-haves for me!

[Plantaholic]

I couldn't live in an isolated place and prefer, as we are now in a village, it is a very friendly village and in spite of the countryside being built on we are still a village. I do have to belong somewhere.