Timerich

I've always wanted to go to an RHS flower show and watch the week long coverage of Chelsea every year.  Tatton Park in Cheshire is only about an hour from here in Chapel en le Frith and where I used to live in Hadfield (another Derbyshire village)  So again every year I've wanted to go. But as it's usually the weekend schools break up I've been too knackered after a year of teaching or I've been  taking the children on holiday and the places they wanted to go to never included walking round garden shows!! But this year time is my own...(still revelling in this) so I went with a friend who shares the same passion for gardening that I do.  We chose to go on a Friday  not a Saturday as neither of us are limited by the working week anymore!!  Loved every minute  even the tickets were really pretty. as I walked from stand to stand, admired new plants and viewed show gardens it was a feast for the senses Here are some of my photos (I could have taken more,

It's a year since we moved into our bungalow.  At the moment the garden is our long term project.  Long term because we don't have a couple of thousand in our backpockets as you see in all the TV programmes. For example 'Big Dreams Small spaces' with Monty Don. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04mqp0 The programme is really good and gives loads of ideas...but generally the people engaging on their garden projects have money to put their plans into action. Another fabulous programme I've enjoyed recently is the Autistic gardener. http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-autistic-gardener  Really quirky with a different way of looking at planning and designing gardens.  But again the clients have plenty to spend. At most we probably have about £20 month that we can allocate... but we have time. So instead of employing landscapers etc. most of the back breaking work will be done by yours truly!! But the first biggie removal of hedge and replacemen

Honestly.. .I can't believe how full my days are... Recently went on a trip to Lincoln with the WI well worth going, despite the weather which was overcast. the cathedral and castle are so picturesque. Also where I live in Derbyshire it's been well dressing time and for the first time I was able to have a go...it's really absorbing and gret fun with a very friendly group. I was only able to do some pricking out and the staff in the knave of hearts and hedging in the Union Jack, next year I'll take out the whole week and do lots more, so thrilled to have time to be part of it. I contributed to the Knave of hearts under the number 15       put in a corner of the hedging on this one using conifer. I also helped out on the WI stall raising money for charity I'm on the right in the red Tshirt I've so much more I want to do...painting classes begin in September and I'm really interested in Pilates.  But what I'm really

It's a year since I retired and I think somewhere at the back of my mind I sort of thought I might go back to work within six months, perhaps 3 days a week.. I'm surprised that I'm actually getting used to being retired. No it's more than that I'm enjoying every minute... It's having time . It was when I was a child I first heard the lines of W H Davies poem:   What is this life if, full of care, We have no time to stand and stare. http://www.davidpbrown.co.uk/poetry/william-henry-davies.html I t's a refrain that's often come back to me throughout the busyness of life. Latterly trying to balance homelife, family, work I've longed to stand still, but there's always been something that has demanded my time and attention... For the first time in a long time I feel free, free to please myself how I spend my day. Walking the dog has become a regular activity, and I've found myself literally standing and staring at cows, while

view of Kinder from the front of the bungalow Snow has gone and spring is in the air well most days.  My walks with the dog are getting longer and I'm beginning to get a routine...I know after clock watching most of my adult life why?  It just seemed strange not to have some kind of order to my day, like being in holiday mode permanently. Which was great for a time but then I felt I was frittering away my time and it felt like it was too precious to not spend it wisely. Unlike money time once spent can't be re earned... I've joined the local gardening club which meets once a month and the local knitting group which meets Wednesday afternoons.  I haven't knitted anything for years so I'm definitely out of practise but I'm enjoying taking it up again. I also visited the local WI last week and was amazed at how friendly everyone was.  http://www.thewi.org.uk/ I've booked a meal out with them and a day trip to Lincolnshire.  What I love is being ab

view from the bedroom window How great it is to look out of the bedroom window at the snow and know you don't have the panic of digging the car out, a treacherous journey and concerns about getting home again if the weather worsens.  Being a teacher for most of my working life, this was a frequent experience in the winter. School management always seemed to dither when faced with the decision to close schools.  Consequently, you were usually stuck in an enormous traffic jam going nowhere, after getting up extra early to get the car going, when the text came through that school was closing. Great now all you had to do was get out of the traffic and spend the next hour or two slipping and sliding on the roads to get home. Taffie, not sure what to make of this white stuff Not for me anymore, apart from walking the dog...quite an adventure I'm tucked up in my cosy bungalow, homemade soup lots of it! and homemade bread in the oven yummy.  view from the front of  

Brilliant day today! Housework, shopping, cooking, walking the dog and still plenty of time to research (by research I mean surf the net) for facts on healthy eating.   And that's what I'm delighted with TIME!! I decided today to seriously look at the Raw Food diet. I tried this once before in 2011.  This was prompted by my husband's lack of energy and wanting to make sure I was doing everything foodwise to help him. We both went about 50%  Raw then and I remembered that it had made a significant difference to his energy levels and he'd been able to reduce his diabetic medication.  Oscar For lots of reasons we'd stopped it, work and lack of time being the main thing. It's so easy when you arrive home from work and your husband has cooked you a meal to succumb and eat it with the proviso that you'll stick to the Raw diet tomorrow. So I've dusted off Oscar (our juicer)  and I've my first delivery from Abel and Cole    http://www.abelandcol

first flurries of snow beginning to cover the grass Snow began falling at about 12 am today, so I decided to take Taffie for her walk in case it got worse. snow on the hills  Though really, I'm like a kid when the it begins to snow, Well I am now... no longer do I wonder if it's going to stick and make journeys to work  a nightmare. Instead I can enjoy changing my plans and within minutes doing what I want to do. I have time to enjoy the walk  and the picturesque peaks. Time to laugh at Taffie's surprised look as her coat became covered with snow flakes.  Even though she's experienced snow in her two short years, it's as though it's happening to her for the first time.  We had a great time together, snow's  melted now,but there is more forecast...wonderful! It's a bit cold to sit!

celebrating my 60th birthday Sept.8th 2014 There are lots of great things about being retired that I like, number one not having to commute into work in all weathers. I used to get up at 5.15 am every weekday and was so knackered when I got home that I didn't do more than watch TV, especially TV where I didn't really have to engage brain. Then the weekends went by in a flurry of trying to squeeze seeing the grandchildren, catching up on the housework , shopping and trying to fit in walking (we live in a beautiful part of the country.) Monday morning saw me exhausted on the 6.30am train to Manchester to begin the whole cycle again. And I fully believed that's how things would continue until I was 66. Now apart from taking care of my husband my time is my own,  Yet I feel adrift, no real goal or aim in sight. Would I go back to work if my husband's health improved, probably not I'm enjoying my freedom too much...but, I don't know what it is but, ther

So sixty is the new forty... well here I am three days into 2015, I'm sixty, have taken early retirement and trying to get my head around it... For the first time in my life I've got time to choose what I want to do and generally speaking when I want to do it.  Wow...  There are some restrictions, my husband's health means I now am his full time carer (the main reason for retiring from 'paid' work early) Also money... But time means I've plenty of time to research the cost of things.   One of my favourite websites is :   Down the Lane A personal downshifting experience to seek a simpler, more frugal & self-reliant life http://www.downthelane.net/          Main Aims for 2015: Complete writing course and write articles/stories for magazines and get published Lose weight...find a way of eating that suits my health Plan garden, would like veg and chickens...time will tell Enjoy long walks with Taffie my dog upcycle sideboard and