Do you ever miss your roots ?

I know exactly what you mean Cherrytree, I feel just the same. My sister and brother with their families still live 'at home' but I have made my life here with DH who is from this country and the only close family are our 2 DDs, SiL and granddaughters

Is your "homeland" far away?
As an expat Scot, I well up at the sound of the pipes, the Edinburgh Tattoo, the sight of the heather on the hills, the Isle of Skye and Tobermory Bay. But I also know that I would no longer be truly at home there as I have been away for nearly 50 years.

Yes in a way - I miss Scotland but have lived in England for over 45 years and my mother is English anyway. But I know that it is the Scotland of long ago I miss and also perhaps lost youth! The past truly is another country.

How similar Alea!

I also could echo Alea's post. I sometimes dream of the bungalow where we lived until I was 17, with a view of the Isle of Arran from our dormer windows.

I've lived in the SW of England for the better part of 40 years, moving here with my DH when our children were little more than toddlers. I left my mother and siblings behind in the home counties and even after all this time I miss my roots. When I go back on visits, there is always a point on the journey when I know I've arrived 'back home'. It is a strong connection, a feeling of belonging. People sound different. No that's wrong, people sound different here, where I live. When I go 'home' people sound right, their accents so familiar, so missed.
Would I go back? No, not after all these years. My children are here, with their children. They belong here, and so do I. My home town, in fact the whole region, has changed greatly in the intervening years. It is so fast paced, I don't think I could stand the hustle and bustle, the never ending traffic queues. Here it is slower, softer. I can breathe. I think when I say I miss my roots, what I mean is I miss my past. And you can't get that back <sigh>

This has struck a chord with me, because I do miss my roots, and often think about returning to live there. The only place I think of as home, after moving house numerous times.
www.beautiful-northumberland.co.uk/ph6.html
I've been back many times since leaving when I was about 20, and my parents were there up to 2002.
I just have to hear the Geordie accent, and I'm back there.

I miss family and friends but not my roots, although I am not really sure what roots means. I don't miss the city where I was born and spent most of my adult life. In fact, I was very happy to leave it and love my new home.

I was born in South Shields, I am a Geordie, even though I left when I was 23 I still have a strong accent and proud of it. No matter where I live my roots and memories are there

You all seem to echo how I feel in your different ways I'm a fellow Scot and sometimes find it hard to put in to words to my family that sometimes 'the pipes are calling" but like you say grrrany maybe to the scotland of old. They say you can take person out the 'place'. But not the 'place' out of the person.

I don't really have any roots because I was three when we started travelling around the middle east because my father was in the RAF. My family originates from the Isle of Wight and we moved to Ventnor when I was sixteen when Dad retired.

It will always be my spiritual home. I would move back in a heartbeat but I know it's no longer possible. We have friends there and we visit when we can but I'm always heartbroken when we have to leave.

Thanks for the flowers Mrshat where are you from? if you don't mind me asking.

I am from the North of England but don't miss it at all, in fact am pleased to be living where I now am, having said that, we have moved around a lot for the last 45 years so consider most of the South, the South Midlands and the West my home really.

God, yes. indinana has described how I feel.

I always well up when I hear nKosi Sikeleke iAfrika.

But the UK is home now. I truly believe that "You're as happy as you make your mind up to be" and that goes for everything, including where I am in the world. (I think Abraham Lincoln said that...)

I did go back. I was born in Hull and lived there until I was 18.
We moved to various places between Northumberland and Hampshire, then back to Hull when I was forty.
It wasn't the same. I was teaching there when we first went back, then had a business. We lived round the corner from where I was brought up. Walking along the main road into town, the area was much more run down.
Now Hull has improved a lot but those roads are still run down.
There used to be lots of ships on the river, but they've all gone now.

I noticed last week that the house we lived in there is now worth £100,000 more than this one, but it's the one where my husband fell off a ladder and broke his back, so I'm really not bothered.

One of my sisters still lives in Hull, so I go there to see her, and a couple of friends, but I wouldn't move back. My family are here now.

I agree that the tug of memory is very strong and always feel a lifting of the heart as we go over the border, but having been there just before the referendum and seeing the nastiness of the Yes voters and the attitude of the SNP, I would never consider living there again! We always meet lovely people and have a lovely time but it's not the same. The past 's definitely another country!

I don't miss my roots but I do miss my country, my previous life and family, many of whom are no longer alive. I have no desire to return to where I was brought up, but I do have a hankering to relocate nearer my family - until I look out of the window and ask myself how I could ever leave here and 35 years of memories! Local politics may eventually persuade me to leave - time will tell but there again, there are politics everywhere

I grew up in Lancashire, though my family were from Yorkshire mainly and I was born there. I haven't lived in Lancashire since I was eighteen when I came to Scotland to uni and have never felt the urge to return, though I do love hearing Lancashire speak again when I go back to visit relatives.

I missed Scotland when I lived near Oxford and came back like a shot, though to a different part than before, when the opportunity arose.

Roots? Happily British and European. Other than that, I'm not sure I have any roots.

I miss London dreadfully for the theatres, museums and fabulous restaurants and parks but I recognise that my quality of life here in the East Midlands is very good. I loved living in North Yorkshire for the scenery and walking but never felt at home mostly because of the not so quiet mutterings in our village about 'bloody Londoners'. Its a bit more diverse here and people more welcoming and inclusive, the air is clean, the traffic is not so bad, prices are lower and the pace of life is slower which is fine in retirement. although I don't think I have much of an accent a golfer did ask me the other day if I had lived in Australia!

I find this interesting reading as I still live in the town in Kent where I was born. DH moved here from London to be with me and is very happy here. I have always been willing to move away. Especially now DD has moved to Scotland DS lives with us so would come too. I don't know where though.

I have never moved out of Wales, younger daughter wants me to move near to here in Lincolnshire, she sent details of properties for me to chose one, did think about it, she sent photographs of the areas , no mountains , no valleys, I couldn't leave Wales , can't explain really , I just love my country

I'm very near to my roots, being born in Plymouth and still live only 30 or so miles from there. My sons and grandchildren live here too, except for eldest grandchild who has moved to Ireland.
Devon is glorious and I am lucky, but I would like to have maybe uprooted a little bit for a few years. But I have travelled quite a lot so am thankful all round really.

One of my granddaughters lives in East Anglia, Anniebach, and she loves coming to stay with me, as she can see hills from my front doorstep.

I can understand that Jen, there is something magical about mountains , colours change , sometimes clouded in mist , sometimes so clear