My husband, David, is an artist and has always been interested in painting pictures of the Spanish countryside. We’ve both always loved Spanish culture and have spent many holidays in Spain. Five years ago, we decided to give up our jobs in London, sell our house and move to a small village in the south of Spain. We thought it would take months to get organized, but in just three months, we’d sold our home, found a house to rent, booked our ferry and said goodbye to our friends. We were so excited to move!

At first, we thought we’d stay here for a year, but when we arrived on a beautiful September evening, we were amazed to realize immediately that we wanted to stay longer. The owners of our new house were waiting to show us around and cooked us a lovely meal. Gradually, over the following weeks, we settled into a routine. I got a job teaching English and began to learn the language while David painted. David loved the scenery and he was inspired by the wonderful landscape around us. But mostly he fell in love with the bright light of the sun in the south. As a painter, he’s always looking at the contrast between colours and light. During the first six months, he spent hours outdoors painting. His paintings were always about the same landscape but each one of them had something special. The elements in his work were always changing and each new painting was even more beautiful than the previous one.

The following May while we were visiting a small town, we saw an empty shop. David thought it would make a lovely art gallery and we decided to rent it for a year. We filled the shop with David’s paintings and after two days, sold our first picture. Over the next few months, a lot of tourists bought paintings, but the tourists went home in November and our shop became very quiet. But we advertised online and soon business improved. We started getting orders from different places. Everyone loved David’s paintings. Today our gallery is a great success and we both feel we’re living a perfect life.

 Why does the writer say she moved to Spain?