Finally getting excited

Yesterday we went to the new house to do some measuring. Over the last few weeks we've had lots of hold ups with the move. I won't bore you with the details but more than once we thought it might not happen at all. I've been really down about it all. I hate instability. I'm the kind of person who likes to know what's happening next. Well, at long last things seem to be moving ahead again. We're hoping to exchange next week and move in the week after. Hurrah!

It was so great to see the house again. I just love it. It was a really cold day yesterday but the house was warm and cozy. The flat is always cold and I was a bit concerned about the loft conversion in the house but it was toasty. With the delays we won't have time to do much painting before Christmas but it'll be fine. It's just such a lovely house with good light and nice proportions. I can't wait to get there.

Not only will we be in a new house but we'll be in a new area too. Still only about a 15 minute walk to Blackheath Village but Lee Gree/Hither Green is like a little village itself. It's smaller and not as affluent as Blackheath but it's very up and coming. I've joined a group on Facebook called "Come Hither to Hither Green" and found some great links with info about the area.

The best one is: http://www.myhithergreen.co.uk/ I love the headline "Highly Contagious Dog Virus in the Village". One of the headlines worried me for a moment then I read it more clearly. It's "Pensioner Has Attack on Bus". At first I thought an old lady had been attacked but no, she actually had some chest pains and they had to stop the bus in Hither Green so she could be cared for and taken to hospital. Now that's news.

And a bit of history about Hither Green:

"There were several greens in Lewisham, and two of them were called Hither (nearer) Green and Further Green. Hither Green, near the entrance to the former hospital, was on the site of a hamlet called Romborough, which had not been inhabited since the time of the Black Death.

Hither Green was a wooded area in the Middle Ages, but by the eighteenth century the trees had mostly been felled, and the first houses were built. More houses followed in the nineteenth century, many of them substantial residences. Mountsfield, for instance, was the home of Henry Tibbats Stainton, a famous entomologist. The grounds of this house became the core of Mountsfield Park, which opened in 1905 - it has since been enlarged several times.

The Park Fever Hospital (later called Hither Green Hospital) was opened in 1897 for the treatment of infectious diseases such as scarlet fever or diphtheria. After the Second World War, when it suffered severe damage from bombs, other cases were also treated there. In 1997, after a century of service, the hospital closed and site was developed as housing.

Hither Green railway station was opened on May 1, 1895. It was nationalised in 1947. On 5 November 1967, an express train from Hastings to Charing Cross derailed outside Hither Green station, killing 49 passengers."