Tuesday 20 November 2012

The last time...

Cornwall at its most achingly beautiful and melancholic.
All the shades of a gently fading hydrangea.
Antique colours and soft cool air whispering over the dinghy as the season wanes.
Sometimes you find a place through serendipity...that was true of this house. 
Old stone walls encircled four generations of this family. Cradling us through Christmases, Birthdays, New Years...
one by one the years clocked over to the next here. 
And so the years and then decades passed, engagements, regattas, babies. Parties, lunches, barbecues. Laughter, rage, tears.Grazed knees, sailing lessons, crab claws. Tall Ships, tall tales, Doom Bar. Singing, charades, log fires. 
The family grew and so did the cottage, new parts added to accommodate us all.Still we burst the cottage seams, sleeping bags and mattresses tumbled into the hallways on high days and holidays.
Mostly this house was stuffed to the gunnels with love and a warm welcome for all. Not only did our family enjoy this house but so did the clans...a gathering of families across the years. Grannies and Aunties, dogs and other strays welcome. My nieces and nephews have always known this place, all their lives it has been host to summer shenanigans and Christmas excitement.
Mr Lane has enjoyed this place for the best part of his life too.I came much later into this magical world, eyes wide with joy and appreciation.I came to know and love the special people who live here, people who filled my days with sunlight and inspire me still.

 Perhaps I knew one day it would end? Everything has its time. And that time has come...36 years of memory and family distilled into some newspaper wrapped treasures in cardboard boxes stacked against those old stone walls. I wonder if something of us will still echo through these rooms?

Through my rose coloured spectacles it will be forever preserved in my  memory looking just like this...

We left it behind, on Monday...
tear filled we bumbled up that eccentric narrow Cornish Lane where the grass grows in a strip down the middle of the tarmac...the last time...
...I fall on you for anything I like...
some of us will never leave...I shed my heart's confetti all the way up that silly Lane. 
And you, who remain are with us always...

20 comments:

  1. Wait, you're moving?? Where to? More info!
    Those first three pictures look like paintings. The top one is very Monet + Van Gogh-esque to me. Just lovely.

    I hope your move is smooth and your new home brims over with love and laughter as well!

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  2. Such a truly beautiful place to have such wonderful memory's.

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  3. Qué maravilla de paisaje y la casa es de cuento. Saludos

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  4. How sad to have to leave such a beautiful place and to no longer have it in the family.
    Those memories and happy times will however remain in your hearts forever.
    Sarah x

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  5. So very sad for you, but I'm sure that those who come after you will feel the love that has seeped into those walls down the years and be blessed by it. And you meanwhile must have the most wonderful memories of a very special place x

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  6. What a beautiful house, I'm not surprised you feel sad to leave. However, someone out there will breathe another life into the old girl and you will have another treat in store, somewhere.
    Hope you are well .. you fine geet piece!! xox

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  7. I'm not surprised you have so many feelings to express. What a wonderful place to have lived part of your life. The photos are beautiful. I hope in your next home you begin to build new loving memories. The last photo of the trees reminds me of that lone tree leading from the sea front out of Penzance .
    Wendy

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  8. What evocative photos. I share your feelings, we have a Cornish family home that is shared by all the family, Cornwall is a magical place.

    I also firmly believe that when one door closes, another one opens.

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  9. Wonderful photos,it looks a magical place to live. I am sure your new home will soon be buzzing with love and laughter, for you and your family are after all the heart of the home.

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  10. My heart strings have been tugged....can only imagine how hard it is to leave such beauty.

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  11. A beautifully poignant post

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  12. My heart just broke for you. xxxx

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  13. What a beautiful and loving ode to a family home. Anyone who has ever loved a house knows how you feel. Wishing you much happiness in your future, and the home you leave a new future.

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  14. How heartfelt this post this. This home so clearly means so much to so many. I hope whoever goes to live there now are able to make the same kind of special memories you, Mr Lane and his family have been so lucky yo have.
    Big hug.
    Lisa x

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  15. What a beautiful place indeed... sending hugs!

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  16. Ah Sarah, what a beautiful post and how heartfelt. It brought a tear to my eye. You will always have those wonderful memories. I wonder where you are going, I am sure you will create a loving home wherever you are. jayne x

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  17. I hope your next post will tell of beautiful beginnings....hope the move has gone well.

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  18. Sooo gorgeous and one of a kind. I can see why you would be sad to leave such a wonderful home.

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  19. How lovely a post!
    My Grandfather's house with the big wraparound porch and the 15 foot ceilings and doors with glass doorknobs will be in my memory forever...no matter if it is not in the family anymore.
    "Recall a happy memory as often as you wish, you can never wear it out."

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  20. Dear Miss Sarah-Jane,

    I have a burning question of pending import.... I desire to hang my Christmas cards, this year in swags from the beamed ceiling of my family room in the British fashion (SUPER idea.... all this time I've been struggling to know what to do with them all - not knowing that this deep question was answered an age and a day or so ago.)

    The question is, do they run perpendicular down the room? Along the edges of the wall? Criss-cross? From beam to beam....? I'm sadly lacking panache in this matter, as you can see! =( Any other advice would be most cheerily welcomed!

    Thanks so much! =]

    Kate xo

    ...falalalalaaaaaa la la.....doody-doo....

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