Yesterday we walked to the other side of the river, the more eastern part of Hometown, to do some househunting. It surely was an eye-opener. You see, I seem to have been under a delusion of some kind, thinking that while I find the centre and southern parts of Hometown fairly nice, the rest are not fit for much.

Oh have I been wrong! The main road going through this area (where we have been looking for some affordable houses to rent) was lined with small cafes and tearooms, flower-smelling fruit and vegetable shops, little butcher's shops, homebakeries, all that is small and inviting, their displays spilling onto the walkways.

We stopped for cappuccinos and homemade white chocolate and blueberry scones in a small cafe, where the decor was cosy, slightly musty and dusty, and the staff was friendly. We spent ages eyeing though the tall and rickety shelves of the second-hand store World of Books, where Jim bought me Cottage Industries: information for beginners. We walked in the sun, nosied to the side streets (where we failed to see any smelley bin bags, heaps of rubbish or other things typical to our current student area environment), every now and again we exchanged glances: we really want to live here!

Unfortunately, so do a lot of people, it seems. Houses that come to the market are rented withing days and the rents are going up all the time. We have made a couple of inquiries about a couple of properties to a couple of estate agents, but haven't heard anything about them yet. An estate agent we went to meet yesterday told us he has a house becoming available in a couple of weeks on a very nice street, so that is something to watch for as well.

My friend Tina is also house hunting, as she is (finally!, in my opinion) splitting up with his violent/controlling husband.

Work starts again tomorrow. The last few days last week I was really enjoying it all, most likely because the rain kept off and I was mostly drawing and documenting instead of having to actually dig anything. Tomorrow, though, we are opening a whole new trench, so digging will most likely be involved, and I don't want to watch the weather forecast, in case it's bad news...

before & after