Saying Goodbye To Friends & Hanging Onto Your Smile...

Hi Honeys
This has been such a sad few days.  My dear next door neighbours, loveliest couple ever, have decided to move out and have found their perfect flat/apartment.  I really am happy for them because they're so happy with their new flat but at the same time it feels, genuinely, like an end of an era.

We've been neighbours for over ten years and aside from missing them both terribly I'll also miss their two furbabies adding smiles to my day with hugs and kisses.  Having already lost her fur-pal Gypsy, the most beautiful of black labradors, who would come across our tiny cul de sac for play dates and hugs, a couple of years ago and her gorgeous golden retriever shaped bundle of joy and hugs fur-pal Sam very recently, both gathered by angels, I worry how she'll cope with losing another two fur-friends.

We've talked about adopting another furbaby to keep Jade company, if we could I'd adopt every furbaby who doesn't have a home bless them, but on a practical level Hubby's knees are not great anymore and I can't walk to the end of the street without awful pain, so walking Jade is about all Hubby can do. It's unfair to adopt a baby if you can't care for him/her.  Hugs and love we have in abundance but exercise would be a problem :/

I really (really) don't cope well with change honeys.  Even typing this I'm holding back a major anxiety attack.  Writing it down makes it real.  Of course the world around us changes and coping with that change is important and I will cope with it, eventually, but that doesn't make it any easier or bearable.

I grew up in a time and place, not so long ago, when everyone knew all of their neighbours.  The neighbours children grew up together and your parents neighbours would be known as "auntie" or "uncle."  I know I'm not alone in missing those happier days because I hear others reminiscing around me at work frequently.  Life moves so fast now, people don't connect in the same way and while neighbours may say hello in passing, there isn't the same community there used to be.

I've spent the past couple of days trying to take my mind off losing two lovely neighbours who became far more than friends by throwing myself into my happy place as a distraction...

The beautiful sunshine, and wonderful "drying winds" this past week have cheered me up honeys and as a bonus I freshened up lots of our bedspreads and duvet sets, not that they get to sit on a shelf long enough between washes to be anything else.  Will my new neighbours be friendly? Will they be happy to chat at the back door over the garden fence?

Time will tell dear ones. I've been told a few details so far.  I know they seem, according to our present neighbours, to be a lovely couple, that they have two daughters, no furbabies I'm afraid, but you never know.  Maybe they'll meet our furbaby Jade and might want to adopt a furbaby of their own :)

How do you cope with change honeys?  Do you have any tips to turn a smile upside down?  They would certainly be helpful now if you do.  I'm going to stay positive.  I didn't know our present neighbours before we moved in and look how we became such good friends, so onward to new beginnings and new friends. I hope.

I'm off to check on a rhubarb crumble I have in the oven for our neighbours, they'll miss my crumbles :) Have a fabulous weekend dear ones, fill it with smiles and hugs xx  Till next time, huggles always xx