Getting into the groove

I have spent the last few weeks running around like a headless chicken, in order to just stand still. I had expected this retirement game to be easy, but already I am wondering when I found the time to go to work. I know that I spent too much time in the garden a few weeks ago when the weather here was warm, but with our climate you have to make the most of it when the weather is good and I do just love to be out in the garden. So since then, I have been trying to catch up with list of undone jobs in the cottage. Then there are the jobs that did not get done when husband was at home and  jobs that did not get done during the last eighteen months that I was working. The list seems to be endless. Blogging is somewhere on the list. I realise that in reality as one job gets crossed off the top of the list another jobs gets added to the bottom of the list. It has crossed my mind that if I leave something for long enough the need to do it may go away. Maybe or maybe not. Luckily the list is in my head. If I wrote it down I would frighten myself to death. Each Sunday night a blank canvass of five days lies before me, to do what I wish, as long as I do some housework and the food shop. But each week something gets in the way. Last week it was a trip into Chester to buy a birthday present for SIL and a visit to the hairdresser. This week it was a visit to the dentist. At the moment next week is looking clear.

For the first time in about five years I have managed to weed the whole of the 'woodland bed', which I mentioned in my previous post. Weeding that bed is extremely hard work. It is on a slope and contained millions of very small weeds. It has taken me two months of one to two hour stints to completely weed it and now I need to start again in the area where I began. It is like painting the Forth Bridge. My aim is to get more perennial plants and/or shrubs into it, to prevent the weeds from growing. I have now turned my attention to the rockery, which is another difficult bed to weed as it is also on a slope. When I am not working on the rockery I am in the greenhouse, which is bulging with plants - mainly seedlings and plants that need to be protected from frost. So that is where I am when the weather is fine and for when it is not good enough to be outside we have started to work on the one remaining room that we have not decorated. It is actually back to renovating as this bedroom requires more than decorating and will have a post of its' own. I know that it will be a slow job, but we shall be occupied whatever the weather does. I am never idle. I just wish that there were more hours in the day and more days in the week.

Our outside room

I have been making the most of the recent unusually good weather by spending as much time as I have been able to in our outside room, otherwise known as the garden. So, I thought that you might like to join me in a stroll around it. In addition to showing you our garden this has also given me the chance to experiment with the new camera that husband bought for my birthday last October, as there have not been many opportunities to use it over the winter months.

As visitors turn into our drive their first glimpse, of our garden, is of the 'woodland bed ' on their left. This is planted with Spring flowering perennials and bulbs, which are putting on a good show at the moment. The crocus, snowdrops and aconites have finished for this year. Now it is the turn of the daffodils

 

white  wood anemone
 

 blue anemone blanda

 hellebores

hyacinths - these have quite a pungent fragrance which I know is not to every body's liking,
 

 and it could not be a 'woodland bed' without primroses.

A few years ago I bought about six plants and now they have seeded all over the 'woodland bed'. Soon the bluebells, annual honesty and aquilegia will take over the show. On the right is the rockery where aubretia is doing well.

 At the front of the cottage we have a forsythia which is currently in full flower.

Then we move round to the other side of the cottage. Past the viburnum tinus with its' pretty white flower which  smells of honeysuckle.

 
 Through the side gate and round to the back.

The kitchen window over looks the patio with its' pots of pansies

and tete a tete daffodils.

There is not so much to see in the back garden at this time of year. However, over the last week or so our magnolia has come into flower

as has the damson

The apples trees are also showing signs of life. In fact the whole garden has burst into life over the last few days of warm and sunny weather. At the end of the garden in the farmer's field I found even more new life.

Unfortunately there will be no more scenes like this as the farmer is changing from dairy to arable. Somehow I do not think that staring out at a field of potatoes and leeks is going to be quite the same as a field of cows.

At last

If we had a flag pole, today the flag would be flying because I am celebrating. Husband left for work this morning for the first time since last August, when he took some time off work to have a short holiday and have cataracts removed. I had expected that he would be back working by the end of October. Our lives have changed unbelievably in the last six months. As we drove home from our respective workplaces on August 31 last year, neither of us could have envisaged the changes that were about to take place on our lives. By Christmas both of our mothers had died and I was no longer working. With hindsight stopping work when husband was not working was probably not ideal, but it had been planned for about two years. I hesitate to use the word 'retire' as it has always been my intention to stop work and have a break, ideally with some time at home, on my own. Now that husband is working I can have that time to myself. Then I shall decide whether or not I miss working enough to want to look for another less demanding job, which does not require me to stand up for eight hours a day or spend several hours a month keeping myself up to date. Or I may decide to keep myself occupied without paid employment. There are several options and possibilities.

Having got husband's job sorted out we decided to have a break from our normal routine and go out for a change. On Wednesday afternoon, last week, we went to Ness Botanic Gardens, where we enjoyed a walk around the garden in the sunshine. Apart from daffodils, camellias and gardening students taking measurements there was not a lot to see but it was good to be out in the fresh air.

The following day was as dull as could be and we had planned to go to the archives in Dolgellau for husband to do some of his family history research. We had a slow journey there courtesy of road works along several stretches of road. The scenery along the route to Dolgellau from Chester can be stunning but the grey cloud and mist were not doing it any favours last Thursday. Here is a photograph from a previous trip when the weather was better.

Most of the buildings in Dolgellau are built of grey stone and last Thursday it reminded me of an Austrian ski resort on a bad day.  No snow and no sun. Just grey sky and low cloud or mist clinging to the surrounding hills. Fortunately our session at the archives was very productive. We found the records of the christenings, marriages and burials of several of husband's family going back into the early 19th century.

In the two weeks that have elapsed since the job interview and subsequent job offer I have put off doing several things, thinking that I would do them when husband was back at work. So I now have plenty to keep me busy both in the cottage and in the garden. And from now on I plan to be out in the garden as much as possible. There are some things, however, which can not be put off. My car needs to MOT'd later this week. This morning I had to purchase two new tyres for it, in order to get it through the MOT. So that is this month's pension spent!

Over the hill

Depending on your point of view yesterday I was being nosey or looking to the future. I went to have a look at a new care home that is opening shortly on the outskirts of our village. It is going to offer residential and nursing care for both frail elderly and those with dementia. I had heard that the fees are to be 50% more than those of the home that my mother was a resident in. So I was curious to see what residents will get for that extra £350 a week. But I didn't really get to see it. I had gone on the wrong day. The open day was Sunday. It hasn't taken me long as a rookie retiree to lose track of the date. As there was no one around and the door was open I managed to have a nose around some of the rooms. It looks rather like a five star hotel. However, some of the finishing touches in the bedrooms, such as tables over the beds, are not something that you would expect to find in a five star hotel. Anyway I am hoping that a lot of water will flow under the bridge before we need to seriously think about a care home.

To be honest I am struggling a bit with this retirement game. Things did not get off to a very good start with my mother dying just before I finished worked and husband is still at home cluttering up the cottage. I was pleasantly surprised by the number of cards and letters that I received from friends and family, in response to my mother's death. My mother's generation don't do e-mail and I have had to respond the old fashioned way. Now, I have almost got the spare bedroom clear of my mother's clothes. Most have been distributed to the local charity shops, but before I was able to do that I had to remove the name tapes from them. It just took a couple of snips to remove the name tapes that I had sewn in, but the ones ironed in by the home were a different matter. It was as if they had been set in concrete. I had to resort to using a marker pen to black out her name. Then there was the issue of what to do with Mum's ashes. The undertaker had brought them round and dumped them in the garage next to the ashes from our log fire, which we spread around our roses. I found the idea of having her ashes in the cottage a bit spooky and was not sure what to do with them. Thankfully my brother collected them a few days later. He has plans to scatter them down in Devon.

Well, what else have I been up to? I am slowly getting through the back log of jobs around the cottage and am enjoying being able to spend more time reading, as when I was working a considerable amount of time had to be spent reading my professional journal and keeping myself up to date. I have also managed to spend a bit of time in the garden when the weather has permitted and am looking forward to spending more time out there, now that the days are getting warmer. In an attempt to prevent the days from all blurring into one I have started to go to a class on a Tuesday morning. I reckoned that by doing so I should at least know when it is Tuesday. The topic is flower arranging, which I have done before. The teacher is the same. The venue, time of day and classmates are different and I was surprised to find that one of them lives in the neighbouring village. Today we did a Continental Parallel arrangement, which I find difficult to do. Also I am not a great fan of modern arrangements but I am quite pleased with this morning's effort.

The garden does not need to worry. I shall always be a gardener first and a flower arranger second.