A Retirement Blog by Caree Risover

  Here we are: no blog entry on my part for over 3 weeks and now two in quick succession. Yes, I know, it's just like those proverbial double decker buses where, after waiting goodness knows how long, two arrive  at once. I suspect I could be turning into the blogging world's version of a fair weather friend/sailor/walker/gardener (take your pick). In my case, however, a bad weather blogger might be a more apt description. A spell of balmy days is always an excuse for avoiding chores and administrative tasks. Apologies, I'm overwhelmed by proverbs today which is why "Make hay whilst the sun shines," comes to mind. I do tend to take that saying a little too literally in retirement but it is fantastic to not only have a choice as to when to do something but to be able to select the right weather for it too. Of course, I'm not sure how my house and paper work would ever get done were I to inhabit warmer climes but, living in the north of England, I know we are ge...

I always know it's March when the hares begin to entertain in the field beyond our garden. Courtship rituals seem to involve madcap chases and boxing matches. "Hare today; spring tomorrow," is the message of the month. Of course, so much time has elapsed since I last posted an entry here that I've not only been watching the hares for several weeks but spring has actually arrived. My healing process has proceeded apace and fortunately enabled me to get into the garden with a spade, just in time to enjoy some wonderful warm spring weather. Snow is now forecast for Wednesday but it was good whilst it lasted.  Spring is regarded as the season for rebirth and it is so enjoyable to watch the bulbs blooming and buds bursting into blossom.  After an absence of over 2 years, we also got to visit our retirement project, six hours away at Crinan. That has to be another renaissance to add to the month's total. Moreover the weather there was magnificent, enabling us once again...

Hot, hot, hot. The lady (that's me) is hot! Forgive me, I honestly mean this literally.  I've been wondering for a longtime what a hot flush feels like. Now I know! I have always been able to sleep soundly. So much so, that it would never have surprised me if a representative from the English Sleep Team (were such a thing to exist) had knocked on my door inviting me to participate in the next Olympic Games.  Indeed one of the aspects of the fitbit app that has always intrigued me is where it gets its data for sleep patterns from. It insists that the benchmark for women of my age is to be awake from 15% to 27% of the night. Honestly that sounds so painful when, even with this sudden radiant heat I've started to generate, I'm still sleeping at least 90% of the time although perhaps the slumbering does now lack the quality I've been used to enjoying in the past. Obviously it's something of a shock to the system, but then I've become accustomed to those over the...

 

  I don't like to feel totally helpless, but events at the other end of Europe over the past 24 hours have created that torment regardless. Somehow it seems absurd to post a blog entry updating you on my cushioned way of life whilst others are forced to fight for theirs or else leave everything to flee for safety. It is hard to appreciate just how much we take our freedom and comfortable lifestyles for granted and how ineffective we potentially are in protecting the liberties of others. There again and at moments like these it is easy to have our own "What if it were us?" moments or to feel guilt when putting something pleasurable in the diary for next month. Are our lives really going to proceed as normal or is a vile dictator on the verge of spoiling life as we know it for everybody? So much for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights when at least one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council can just disregard its contents at will. A 21st century act ...

  I don't think I'm really cut out for this rest and recovery malarkey. In addition to the fact that the slightest bit of activity seems to justify a rest that's more than twice as long as the period of action, my sleep pattern too appears to have extended itself by an extra 30 minutes or more at both ends. A short walk as taken yesterday and the day before was thwarted today by Storm Dudley. That was a shame, as getting out into the fresh air, even for just a brief period of time, really energised and enlivened me although the effect was not sustained. There's a lot of truth in that "Blow the cobwebs away," saying. Unfortunately, had I ventured out today, it might have been more than cobwebs that became windswept. My attention span too is limited, so once the day's Wordle is completed, time is filled flicking through a magazine rather than reading a gripping book; chatting on the phone with friends and family or watching television, the trashier the bette...

  I made the most of my Get Out of Jail Free card (after negative lateral flow tests on Days 5 and 6) to wander up the road to the postbox this afternoon. Actually I could have escaped my incarceration by doing exactly that yesterday but this egregious restriction on my liberty, unwarranted though it may have been, wasn't exactly limiting anything I was looking to do and bearing in mind it poured with rain all day on Sunday, I decided to postpone my sniff of freedom for benign weather conditions. After 11 days of indoor recuperation it was a strange feeling going out by myself, even if it was just for 10 minutes. I was interested to see how my heart might react to the sustained effort of a short uphill stroll. Fortunately I think any elevation in its rate has been more than offset by the intake of fresh air by my lungs, so the jury remains out pending the outpatient monitoring as to any ongoing effects. Importantly, it set up my confidence for more tomorrow (fair weather dependent...