What Did We Do In Durham? Our 3 Month Photo Summary

It's now 3 weeks since we left Durham and we're finally getting around to posting some photos of what we got up to while we were there. We originally went north with the intention of a short visit to 'clear out' old stuff before starting a new adventure, but ended up staying there almost 3 months! It really was completely unexpected that we would settle in as much as we did. However, although we didn't know it when we first landed in the UK, an extended stay in Durham was possibly exactly what we needed. Not just because there was admin needing our attention and a lot of 'clearing out' to do, which I'll write about shortly, but also because we got to see our 'old lives' in a new light and make a lot of happy memories too, which we wanted to share some pictures of in this post.

Personally I was surprised at how easy it was to actually slot back into Durham life. At the end of our first adventure, in 2015, I felt compelled to rush out of Durham asap. I just wanted to be back 'on the road'. This time was different. Maybe because we were much happier in ourselves, but after an initially very hectic couple of weeks, when we still had the idea of a quick visit in the back of our minds so were rushing around trying to see everyone and 'do everything' we thought we had to do before leaving, we actually began to ease back into a modified version of our old lives.

For example, when it became apparent we would have the flat a while longer due to paperwork issues (we'll write more about selling our flat shortly) and decided to stay longer as well we started to do things like: spending more time cooking together; signing up to a gym; taking a road trip to London; establishing a routine of seeing friends several times a week but keep other evenings for tasks or ourselves....(see the photos below)

Granted there were still days when we woke up, saw the rain, looked at the pile of boxes to sort through and clear out or contemplated the menial/admin tasks to do that day (doctors, dentists, repairs/checking our house etc.) and thought 'shouldn't we be in France in a motorhome now'? But we were increasingly able to catch ourselves, come back to the moment and almost invariably something would happen to verify that we really were in the right place for the time being.

As we wrote about last year, a significant part of our second year on the road was about dealing with old emotional issues (personal and shared) and being in Durham, surrounded by familiar places and an increasingly familiar routine helped to bring more to the surface. This could, of course, be painful and challenging at times and did cause conflict between us but we tried as much as we could to come back to the lessons we'd already learned and try to get to the root of what was really bothering us so that we could release and surrender it.

Gradually we found that we started to appreciate the good bits of the life we had 'run away from' in 2014 more and more. At the same time the 'bad memories' we had when we used to think about our old life in Durham faded and we realised it had all arisen from our clouded mindset at the time. That is why I said above it was probably exactly why we needed to come back and really settle back in for a while.

Although we got off to a good start by writing about our first 2 weeks back in Durham our posting tailed off after that! We'd hoped to write more during our time in Durham but as lots was happening and changing all the time we didn't really know what to say and in the end didn't find ourselves with the time. It's only looking back we've realised just how much fun stuff we got up to, so here are a few of our Durham highlights. So what did we do.......

We spent time with friends......

Went on some walks in Durham along the river and to the Cathedral........

Went on two lovely walks in County Durham thanks to our friends Sam and Kitty's route planning and car ................

We celebrated some special occasions with a couple of meals out................

We had visitors so took a sightseeing trip round Durham, enjoying Durham Regatta and the Cathedral (including finding out about the Lego Cathedral project).............

Returned to play with Durham Lego Cathedral as Mini-Ali and Dave help with construction......

Played with some bunnies, including our lovely little Alfie and his new partner Lucy .......

Had picnics along the River Wear and also in the newly re-opened Wharton Park where we enjoyed the shows and activities put on to mark it's re-opening........

After the first month of enduring the chilly Springtime running in Durham (including in the snow!), we then treated ourselves and enjoyed a temporary gym membership. Although Esther enjoyed her first Park Run. We also started going to weekly Yoga and Pilates to stretch ourselves out after 2 years of living in a motorhome(!) as well as join in charity fundraisers including a 2hr Spinathon .........

Relaxed into life back in our flat.................

Enjoyed having a kitchen..............

Tried some new recipes ......

Thanks to all our Riverford deliveries brought by the very friendly Andy......

And new treats made by friends for us.......

Did some writing, reading and editing, especially when the weather turned chilly and it was snowing in late April!...............

But also tried some new experiences like taking some time-out from writing and going for a rather different cup of floral tea .........

And despite the snow we did get to enjoy Durham in it's Springtime Bloom......

We established 'Flowers Friday!' (lucky Esther!).............

Took a trip to London to hear Michael Bernard Beckwith speak and Rickie BB perform...........

Visited Peterborough and some friends on the way home .......

Dan took a trip to Oxford to play in an University Ice Hockey Reunion Match and visited Nottingham to see family & celebrate his niece's 1st birthday in Wollaton Park.......

Meanwhille Esther took a plane trip from East Midlands to Amsterdam to see Oma and Mum (first time since Dec 2015)...........

Took a Trip to the Lake District in a rental van which we nicknamed Mini-Homer(!); experiencing all weathers, wild-camping and visiting some friends from our motorhome travels...........

And yes a lot of admin - doctors, dentist, physio, podiatrists and hospital visits and tests; solicitors admin, life admin, house admin, including mowing some lawns, organising house repairs,moving a lot of furniture (surprisingly not many photos of this aspect of things!)........

And finally a LOT of clearing out (a separate post about this soon) but we did get to meet lots of lovely, very interesting and wonderful people through eBay, FreeCycle and charity shop drop offs........