A lot can happen in two years. It has been two years since my last blog was published, and in that time we have seen some major shifts in the world, not the least of which is the current situation we all find ourselves experiencing. Who would have thought, on that hot day in Cardiff when my husband and I waited at the Premium Service Centre for my settlement visa to be approved, that two years later we’d be more or less housebound due to a pandemic? 
Two years ago, everyone in the UK was focused on Brexit and the possible havoc that would wreak on the economy. Little did we know that Brexit was nothing compared to what was in store for all of us.
A whole new vocabulary has entered our lives – lockdown, PPE, shielding, social distancing. There have been terrible tales of tragedy, and inspiring stories of courage and gumption. Who will forget the indomitable Captain Tom Moore raising nearly £33 million for the NHS by walking 100 laps of his garden by his 100th birthday? Who will forget the stark images of health care workers struggling to keep up with the overload of patients and the rising numbers of ill and dying?
Mr. H and I have experienced our own highs and lows during these past two years. We have shared joyful celebrations with our families, traveled to new, exciting places and soaked up awe inspiring scenery and different cultures. We have dealt with our own health crises and spent far more time in hospitals than we care to mention.
Now that he is working from home, Mr. H has given me a new gift: a place to call my own. Gone is the guest room that was used an average of two weeks out of every year – and served most of the time as a repository for any bits and bobs we did not have room for elsewhere. In place of the small room crammed with over-large furniture there is now a light, roomy space. The old furniture is gone, replaced by a sleek new chest of drawers, a comfortable daybed – henceforth to be known as the writer’s block couch – and a desk. Yes, my very own desk. OK, perhaps my new desk is remarkably like our old dining table which has been gathering dust in the garage for two years, but we won’t quibble. I am calling it a desk and that is the end of the matter. I have my own computer, a super-sized monitor that is easy on older eyes, a proper desk lamp, and a view out over the street so I can keep a nosy watch on all the comings and goings. In short, all the accouterments of a proper writer.
It is my retreat, my little haven of solitude in our tiny house.
Seven years ago, I began this blog with a short post in which I gave thanks and credit to my husband. We had been married for just a few months at that time, and you could say it was still the honeymoon phase of our lives. Now, as I resume writing after a break of two years, I once again want to thank my husband. We’re no longer in the honeymoon phase, but we are still in the happily ever after phase, and I can honestly say that the difficult times we have faced together have made me fall in love with him all over again. As I once again pursue my dream of being a writer, it is with the unfailing support and encouragement of my own Mr. H, cheering me on.
As I have said before, this blog would not exist without him, and it is to him that I re-dedicate it.
“Perhaps, after all, our best thoughts come when we are alone. It is good to listen, not to voices but to the wind blowing, to the brook running cool over polished stones, to bees drowsy with the weight of pollen. If we attend to the music of the earth, we reach serenity. And then, in some unexplained way, we share it with others.” ~ Gladys Bagg Taber
An American Wife in Wiltshire 
Hi Elizabeth
Wonderful to see you are back writing again. Keep it up!
Anne & Fred
Thank you, Anne and Fred.
Welcome back, Elizabeth! I have missed your Blog.
PatG
Thank you, Pat. It’s lovely to hear from you!
So good to hear from you again! Looking forward to more magical musings from you!
Thank you, Marilyn. You’ve probably been the person who prodded me most often to get back to writing, and I appreciated the encouragement.
Wonderful to hear from you. I was a friend of your father’s. I’m sure he would be very proud of you. Looking forward to more writerly thoughts.
Hello Linda. Thank you for your kind words about both the blog and how you think my father would have felt about it. I remember when you and Ron visited us at the beach one summer, and also when you visited my dad in San Diego when he was living in the condo in Solana Beach.
Wonderful to be reading your blog again Elizabeth – have missed your lovely musings!
Thank you, Ann. It’s reassuring to know people will still read them after all this time. I hope to begin posting more frequently and already have a couple that I am working on.
I look forward to your posts, Elizabeth!
Thank you, Pam. That’s encouraging to know.
Good job. Mr. H can’t be that great!
He can be, and he is. 😁
Thank you so much for your kind and encouraging words. You brought a few tears to my eyes.
Beautifully crafted update, graphic, moving and deeply sincere. The tools of a gripping writer not in the making but right now in reality.
It strikes me that every good man needs and in your case has an extra ordinary, caring and loving woman. You and your husband are proof of this.
You are an inspiration to us all.
P&C
Glad that you’ve started again Elizabeth. It was your blog which inspired me to start mine but it’s only enjoyed a couple of spurts in activity, with the last one succeeded by Covid-19 and a host of distractions. You’re now spurring me on to restart (yet) again!
You have such a readable and engaging, easy style, and this post leaves me wondering when you’re going to be sewing your many posts together into a book. A book to, in part, encourage those from the country you left to come over and enjoy the pleasures of Wiltshire and the surrounding counties, but also to understand the challenges and the pleasures of settling here, … and for us (ex-)residents to read about life in our country from the perspective of an understanding outsider who has done such a good job of blending in with the natives.
And I hope you’ll find that falling in love all over again is a recurring theme in your married life with Mr H, just as it has been in my life with my very own Mrs R.
Hello David. Thank you for your comments. If my post has spurred you into resuming your blog, then I can’t wait. Your accounts of how you and Mrs. R came to be living in France have been greatly enjoyed, and I look forward to the story continuing to unfold.
As for me one day compiling my blogs into a book – it’s definitely a hope I have long cherished. It just takes me sitting down and applying some concerted effort to the task and writing plenty of new material to include.
All my best to you and Mrs. R and the joys of falling in love all over again throughout your married life. What a lovely thought.