Monday 23 January 2012

A dream come true....

It's a odd thing when all your dreams come true. It's something you don't expect and when you get it you feel a bit uncomfortable. I've been battling with a secret for months. We've done what I always wanted to do which was to move back home to the Isles of Scilly. Even writing that feels a bit like tempting fate. But it's happened. I am here. I'm sitting in front of my computer in my new house, the sun is rising over Tresco and oyster catchers are dancing around Green Bay. I'm home.

This is our new home. It's perched on the north end of Samson Hill on Bryher overlooking Tresco. I grew up watching it out of my window. I remember exploring its beautiful gardens drenched in fuchsias, agapanthus and hydrangeas. I loved its uphill drive way before you got to the little blue cottage at the top. I can't remember when it wasn't occupied anymore and the garden started engulfing itself. The flowers were buried by brambles and gorse and the driveway closed off. However, a couple of years ago there was talk that the house was being knocked down and rebuilt and the other half said if moving to Scilly meant living at that house then we should go for it. Finally in December we were allowed in.

We're going to run it as an eco friendly B&B (www.samsonhill.co.uk). I get to cook for a living...and I am so excited. And terrified. But we get to wake up to this everyday....

The work is incredible. Every muscle and bone aches as we try and reclaim the garden from years and years of brambles. But the plants are still there, succulents, fuchsia bushes, agapathus and echiums. They are just tangled in thorns and a lot of rhodedendrom. This is going to be the vegetable patch...This was before we started clearing.

And here it is....
I have two months before our first guests are in. I need to master croissant bakery and how to make a perfect bed. But it never stops being amazing and I keep pinching myself.