The weather isn’t the best and you can’t see as far as the sea but I hope you understand now what waking to this view will do for my spirit and karma. This has been taken from the road outside the cottage that we are hoping will be ours in a few short weeks. There are cows – sorry to point this out, I’m sure you can see them without me doing so but I can’t help myself. I’m so thrilled by all of this.

While I stood taking this photo I could hear the sounds of the country – a cockerel crowing (both to remind me of the Spurs and to remind me of Sandhurst), cows mooing and sheep bleating. But you know what? No cars – nope, not even in the distance. Here in Sandhurst we can always hear the M3.

We have had news today that the family who own it at the moment have decided to move in with their family so the sale can proceed quickly without waiting for them to find a new permanent home. Yippee.

Our drive home is full of plans, some more sensible than others. We discuss the garden, the house, a Rayburn and all sorts of exciting stuff.

When we arrive home David is quickly on line to search for information and see if we can confirm the mining connection. He discovered some fantastic things. Firstly, there is a ‘no development’ policy in the village. Not even in-fill, which is the name they give to building on back gardens! Perfect.

Secondly and more importantly he confirms the cottage is indeed a miner’s cottage. A chill runs down my spine. I am the daughter of a miner and the grand-daughter and great grand-daughter too. My family were miners in the Welsh valleys, the Lancashire coal fields and the Kent mines too. The family mined coal but this is copper, lead, arsenic and tin mining so it’s not the same but it’s the same basic process. The difference is that the mineral reserves in the South West ran out over a hundred years ago and most of the mines were closed around the beginning of the 20th century. It’s little known that Cornwall was one of our great industrial centres 100-200 years ago.

My Dad worked in the Kent coal fields until 1958 when he joined the RAF after a mining accident.

This is so right. This is the circle of my life.