Do you ever wonder how your life might have been, if you hadn't taken a crucial decision, met certain people, moved to a particular place? For instance, if I hadn't married my first husband, moved my pony to a certain farm, met a good horsey friend there who subsequently moved back home to Dorset, and moved to Dorset myself when I split up with my husband, I might never have met the love of my life and we've been married 20 years now.
Just so with houses, for if we hadn't lost out on the cottage we were buying near Dartmoor, and if I hadn't been on holiday to Carmarthenshire in 1971 and 1972 and fell in love with the area, we might never have moved to our current home. And in fact, if we hadn't bought a huge £1 mirror at auction and decided that it would be lovely to have an old farmhouse to hang it in, life might have been very different indeed.
I was thinking all these thoughts - and more - driving up to Sheffield with Eldest Daughter on Thursday. Every time I have driven up through mid-Wales and passed the turning to Montgomery, I have wondered what the town looked like, as we were very keen to view a half-timbered farmhouse in the area, which sounded just what we were looking for, but unfortunately the vendor was playing ducks and drakes and every time we tried to make an appointment to view, he cancelled, driving us and the Estate Agents to despair. In the end, we gave up and moved to Carmarthenshire instead.
So when I was driving back home yesterday I thought "S*d it, I'll go and see what we missed!" I have to say, sitting in the serene little market square in Montgomery, with its beautiful houses and 3 or 4 small shops, I think it would have suited us to the ground. I drove up a steep winding hill past the castle (will visit that next time, camera in hand) and out across beautiful countryside back through Abermule and onto the road home.
