Retirement Projects

I’ll say it loud and clear – as of now retirement is the best thing that ever happened to me. I am having the time of my life! I had spent quite a lot of time before it happened thinking about what I would do. I was going to do it anyway but you can’t help it when you get asked the question on a not infrequent basis, What are you going to do when you retire?

The first thing was my back garden. When I became a widower in 2019 I decided I wanted to remodel it with the idea of growing vegetables. I had tried on and off with odd vegetable plant and a couple of fruit bushes but it wasn’t focussed and they disappeared under the undergrowth surrounding the weed sown lawn. I now had the freedom to do something radical and began. Apart from getting outside and back to nature I wanted to eat more veg, in particular, I wanted to eat more interesting veg and also to have a supply of fresh herbs. This was my big thing even before I retired and was helped no end by the first lockdown.

Family History was a thing I had thought about doing for ages about but never got around to. It was going to be saved until retirement but during lockdown my son started doing some so I got drawn into it. It is massivley time consuming which when you are retired is a good thing.

A late entry in the list is Classical Music. I inherited a substantial amount of Classical Music CDs when my friend died last year complete with his HiFi system. I now have many, many hours of listening to come.

Walking however was and is the ‘main event’. Local walking, Nordic Walking, long distance walking. This now includes camping and backpacking. I have always known it to be the best way I can sort out my thoughts and am more aware of it’s benefit to my mental health. I have been reading books about it too.

I have met several people who have spoken of their experience of retirement. One in particular springs to mind who I met while walking in Windy Nook Nature Park. He told me how he got bored after retiring and went back to work part time. He never mentioned any financial reason. The thought of returning to employment fills me with horror.