Thank you @HillieBoliday - it was not my intention to reduce anyone to tears, but your concern and sensitivity have moved me very much, thank you.
I did namechange for this as I feel so embarrassed by the way I feel and did not want it linked to other threads which I have started or posted on, where I am usually much more positive and upbeat! ( This username is actually the scientific Latin name of one of my favourite plants!)
Much of the time I am fine with my own company, love my little house, enjoy spending time watching the birds, insects, mice, voles and, in the evenings the bats flitting about, the sheep and cattle in the fields and owls calling at night.
It is a very old property and I often feel that those who have lived, died, been born or conceived in it, over the years, are watching over it, and me - as I intend to do when its next custodians take up residence! There are also two gargoyles inset into the wall in the living room which came from the original Palace of Westminster which burnt down in the 1830's - how they came to end up in a Somerset cottage is a long story, but has provenance. Some might be freaked by them, but I find them very comforting and feel that they, too, are watching over me. So I am not totally alone!
But, yes, the underlying sense of lonliness does not go away - I enjoy cinema and theatre, often go when there is something I would like to see, but going by oneself is not the same and sometimes I wish fervently that I had a friend to go with. These are the occasions when the lonliness bites.
My very best wishes to all who have posted on this thread, I sincerely hope that at least some, if not all, of you can link up in some way, shape or form🥂