The most surprising about retirement so far is how darn busy I feel. My retired friends and family always told me their lives were busier than when they worked but, to be frank, I never truly believed them. I assumed they'd simply slowed down to the point that they felt busier.
Now that I've joined their ranks, I have to admit they may have been telling the truth. Admittedly, I've slowed down a bit, but I'm also far busier in many ways. For years, I put a whole slew of projects on pause, while waiting until I had more time to tackle them. Now that the time is here and I've hit "play" on so many of them, my days and weeks are filled to the brim.
The garden is a perfect example. Husband and I have owned our home for 9 years, but we've only ever done minimal gardening because, until I retired, we were mostly here only on weekends and didn't want to spend all our time working. Now that I'm retired, I no longer have an excuse to ignore the overgrown bushes and crowded perennials, so spent many hours this spring weeding, mulching, and moving plants around. I'm also making a more serious effort to establish a vegetable and herb garden.
The summer has been damp and cool so far so it's taking a while for the veggies to get going but yesterday I harvested my first radish and a few leaves of fresh arugula, and I'm optimistic we'll have plenty of fresh greens in the next few weeks. The beans and potatoes are up and growing nicely too, and the garlic we planted last fall looks wonderfully lush so I'm hopeful the bulbs are maturing nicely under their seaweed blanket. I'm hoping to finally get some tomatoes planted in the next day or two.
Seeing to the perennials mostly involves cutting things back and dividing and rehoming the irises and mounding geraniums I planted five or six years ago but I treated myself to a few new plants as well. My goal is to get most of the hard work done in the next week or two so that I can relax when the really hot weather arrives - if it ever does.
When I'm not gardening, I'm cooking and baking lots, doing a bit of volunteer work, planning renovations, disposing of stuff we no longer need, researching our family geneology, training the dog, spending time with family, catching up on my reading, and working out. All of which means, the days fly by surprisingly quickly - so quickly that I rarely have time for photography, though I hope to get back to it soon! Here are a few pics I took around our garden in recent weeks.
Are you retired? If so, have you found you're busier than ever too? How do you decide what you'll spend time on now that your time is your own?
I'm finding the busy comes in spurts now, since I'm deliberately trying to take some quiet time as well. I used to read so much and then I read hardly anything for years. Getting back into it has been hard. Many books now read like a paint by numbers story, and they're boring. Right now I'm just finishing up Ice Ghosts, The Epic Hunt for the lost Franklin Expedition, by Paul Watson. It's gripping reading, aside from the side excursions into the paranormal proclivities of Victorians that I skimmed through.
ReplyDeleteI think part of the feeling busy is a reaction to having our lives structured by outside forces, mainly revolving around work. Now we can structure our lives around the things we enjoy doing, and naturally we want to do more of it. Plus time flies when you're having fun.
And now that I've had a chance to look at the photos on the big screen, I'm liking them all, and loving the bee! Inspired me to hang out by the mint plant for a bit, and get some of my own bee photos.
ReplyDeleteHow do I decide what to do? Good question. Whatever you like is a trite unhelpful answer. I still have lists of things to do, and I'll pick one or some of them. Sometimes it's what needs to be done and today is a good day. Like cleaning windows, an example chosen not at random. Or the weather looks awesome for a photo ramble. Or buddies invite you out, or it's time to invite buddies.