Goodbye for now wish us luck...

After being

all of a sudden we're moving house today!

As Joni Mitchell sang...

Don't it always seem to go

That you don't know what you've got

'Til its gone

We've lived here for mumble mumble years, in four houses, and apart from the cars, the village practically looks the same as in this cinema Pathe News Clip of the village from the 1940's! (just click on the photo)

DULWICH VILLAGE 

                                                                 

It still has the white picket fencing, (some in front of this house) wooden finger posts, the toll gate with its sign and the picture gallery which has had more than it's share of stolen paintings!

On the 31st of December 1966 eight paintings were stolen: three by Rembrandt, three by Rubens, one by Gerrit Dou and one by Adam Elsheimer. Worth at the time at least £3 million, a reward of just £1,000 was offered for their return. Nevertheless within a few days all the paintings were recovered as the result of an investigation led by Detective Superintendent Charles Hewett who had previously investigated suspected serial killer Dr John Bodkin Adams. Michael Hall, an unemployed ambulance driver, was the only one of the thieves caught and was sentenced to five years in prison.Rembrandt's small early Portrait of Jacob de Gheyn III has been stolen and recovered four times, most recently in 1983, and is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the most frequently stolen artwork in the world. It has variously been recovered from a left-luggage office in West Germany in 1986; returned anonymously; found on the back of a bicycle; and discovered under a bench in a graveyard in nearby Streatham. The painting is now closely guarded by an upgraded security system.

A lovely park even in Winter and one of the park lodges

      

and the Barbara Hepworth bronze sculpture stolen from the park...

We used to be able to see this from the bedroom window of one house we lived in which backed onto the park... they must have made a hell of a noise cutting it off, the old couple who bought our house must be deaf as posts because we used to hear everything that went on in the park at night!

And if you've read any of my other 'village tales' particularly 'the criminals'

you won't be surprised when I tell you the person responsible was another retired local crim, one who a couple of years ago was found tied up in his home while his safe had been 'supposedly' robbed of several expensive watches and £250000.00 in cash!... so he says.

There are so many memories over four houses, the birth of our son, his christening at the College chapel...

and school, founded in 1619

Being snowed in...

    

so many friends we are leaving behind

as well as 'scruffy' our tame garden robin who always comes when we call him 

I hope our new owners feed him!

      

 We're leaving London and off to Dorset by the seaside.

I'll have a chance to get on with some work as there won't be internet or a land line until the end of March, because of the floods, lots of people are in a far higher need of being connected than us!

I'll miss reading your blogs and will try to visit when I can,

but until then...

please wish us luck

and come back and visit later.

XXX