Timerich

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