My future return to the rural US

This morning helps to remind me of one reason why I plan to return to the US in several years' time: I am heartened already by glimpses of blue sky through the windows here. If I could have plenty of windows all over without curtains drawn, and porches or decks with enough warm weather, then I could enjoy the light and the outdoors even over many workdays if I could telecommute again.

It's not a pipe-dream. The last house I owned in central Ohio was actually cross-shaped, letting in plenty of light through many windows. It is cheap there to buy several acres of land so I could enjoy windows and porches without feeling overlooked. It is easy to get permission to put a small, even prefabricated, house on a full cellar excavated in a hayfield, with none of the tight planning regulations of the UK. We had plenty of lovely weather through much of the year. I am more productive when telecommuting and it might reduce ageism in hiring for me to be mostly remote anyway.

Living in that way somehow made me more content, glimpsing deer and groundhogs in my yard, wandering around the property to clear fallen branches and whatnot. Although I am stuck back in the UK for the meantime to make higher education affordable for my children, I know that I am still lucky: I have already discovered what makes me happy and in the long term it feels within reach.

Finally back to playing piano

At the best of times I play piano very poorly. Tonight I actually touched the keyboard for the first time this year: mostly using just one finger from each hand, I made my way through three tunes so slowly that they were unrecognizable. I shall take it as a small sign of tangible progress: a clear step even if far short of any useful end. Perhaps my productivity has increased slightly because our routine has not been perturbed lately: we are now well past the holiday season and largely caught up on chores.