My Rural Dream - Living in the Country
Karen Crosby
In the December 2020 issue of the Fibromyalgia Magazine (also available here on the blog), there was a great article by Sarah Warburton about moving to a rural area and the challenges that may bring for Fibro sufferers.
Sarah mentioned that because of the corona virus, lots more people wanted to move out of towns for a quieter way of life.
I have wanted to move to the highlands of Scotland for many years, and in 2017 I did just that, with my husband and son.
I think this was fuelled by spending a lot of time in the country as a child as my uncle had a cottage up on the North Yorkshire Moors, and after a holiday in Scotland I fell in love with the landscape, the traditions and the way of life. For the first 20 or so years of my working age life, I had very stressful target dominated work, chiefly in sales and marketing, including 5 years in a London publishing house.
I never thought, when we were planning the move to the highlands, how it might affect my fibro, but looking at the possible pitfalls that Sarah outlined, prompted me to share my story.
Pros: -
Firstly, my GP practice is 6 miles from my home in the nearest larger village, for which there are no buses. However, for myself this is not an issue, since I can comfortably drive short distances without pain, indeed it is only long journeys I struggle with, especially in slow moving traffic jams where my constant use of clutch and brake causes bad flares in my leg muscles.
On the 2 occasions I have been too ill to drive to the doctors and my husband was at work, my friend drove me there and brought me back.
As far as support groups go, I have never been part of one, and where I live now I have a very close friend just a mile away who is a retired nurse and very supportive, along with my husband and my friend network I have established here.
Village life means everyone looks out for each other, and when we need work doing we have a plumber, an electrician, a roofer, and a man who does all kinds of work with wood, kitchens and restoring furniture, so we have it mainly covered.
We have a post office and (very) small shop in the village that is our lifeline if the weather is bad, where we can get vegetables, eggs, milk, bread, frozen food and tinned products when we need, and 6 miles away there is a bigger village with a small supermarket, chemist shop, special food shop with fresh foods, a hardware shop, 2 cafes, and lovely art and gift shops, as well as a newsagent and post office.
If those in our village who do not have a car need to get to Elgin (nearest larger town) 16 miles away, there is a dial a bus service, and a bus twice a week doing a return journey back to our village.
The village hall hosts a fitness group, yoga and is open to hire for anyone offering classes at a very cheap rate and is very well heated and equipped, obviously corona virus has stopped some classes for the foreseeable future, but they are usually on weekly. The social events usually include a summer fete for which we all get involved, a ceilidh on New Year’s Eve (pronounced “kayley” and is live music with traditional Scottish dancing), and lighting up the tree event before Christmas when the children sing carols and we turn on our lights, have mince pies in the village hall and mulled wine. There are free books in the village hall, and at 2 places in the larger village 6 miles away, and a mobile library service bringing books from the other village main library building.
The main reason, for myself, is being surrounded by the most beautiful countryside on all sides of my cottage, miles of pine forests and lots of farm land, and I love walking and enjoying the fresh air even in the cold (walked in minus 10 once but had 7 layers on)! And we have only been snowed in for 1 day so far!
I teach Yoga in the larger village 6 miles away (pre corona virus) and will do again when I can, it is in a school with a recreation centre, and for some of my students I pick them up on the way. This centre also had tai chi, Pilates, a gym with subsidised memberships, a swimming pool, dancing lessons and lots more.
All the local businesses put up my posters free of charge and the community spirit is great!
I can walk down into this village with my friend sometimes, because on foot through a forest it is only 3 miles each way, and I like to do this as often as I feel able.
We have good mobile phone mast coverage, and fast broadband so my work does not suffer.
I can stay in contact with all my family and friends back in England by face time on my phone, and (corona virus allowing) they get to visit for a free holiday.
We have a recycling centre in the village (and a few villages around us) for clothing, cardboard, paper, bottles etc; and our recycling bins are really good up here.
The area offers large countryside shop complexes with bookshops, artisan shops, gift shops and cafes, and art and locally made goods for sale like ceramics. It is only 16 miles to a larger town where there are 4 large supermarkets, high street shops, cinema, restaurants, heritage sights, a large park, charity shops and shops with all things Scottish.
There are dozens of distilleries making whiskey and gin and most of them have visitor centres where you can see it being made and have a taste!
The highland games are huge and amazing (when they are allowed to be on), and Christmas markets are also really good!
Cons: -
When we first moved up here we did have some challenges to overcome and these were: -
1. The heating was electric radiators costing a lot to run, however we have replaced them with air source heating and hot water and because this is green energy we get money back from the government every quarter for the next 7 years. Also we have 3 wood burners to keep the house really warm when it is very cold.
2. We had no jobs to come to, but we got temporary and permanent work very quickly indeed, and I think this is because although there are fewer jobs, there are fewer people applying for them because of the population. I now have my own yoga established, both a mainstream class and teaching armchair yoga in care homes (not at the moment for obvious reasons), and I am a holistic therapist too.
3. We are renovating the cottage slowly, and have had a few problems with the chimneys and fireplaces, which we rectified by prioritising and are getting there.
4. When we first moved up here, I had to have breast screening to get on the NHS Grampian records, and was found to have early breast cancer. However the hospital I had my surgeries and treatments is 60 miles away in Aberdeen, so that is a bit of a trek, as the nearest hospital 16 miles away does not cater for this kind of surgery.
5. If we want to go out for a meal, the nearest place is 6 miles away, so one of us does not drink, but we don’t do this very often anyway, and neither of us drinks much, so it is not an issue. Right across the road from out cottage is a hotel being renovated so when that opens again we can go there for a meal once again. We prefer to have dinner indoors with friends when the virus is a thing of the past.
For me, the pros far outweigh the cons, and we have not regretted it for one minute, we love it here and we see wildlife every day, I have my own pet ewe (Morag), and it is beautiful scenery all around us. Village living is for me any time!
I hope this has explained that it is a wonderful thing to do if you want to, but your fibro is possibly worse than mine, so follow Sarah’s advice and do your research first, like I did on the area.
Happy pain-free month!