The view walking down into Lyme Regis

My week-long “staycation” is complete and I’ve really needed that rest and an opportunity to stop a little to just catch myself up and enjoy some #MyTime.  It’s been a week with lots of reading, long walks by the sea – exploring Lyme Regis and taking a look at the flood defence works taking place at West Bay this month – gardening to tackle some of those weeds – taking it a little easy of course with a recently-healed broken wrist – cleaning up the greenhouse and sowing seeds, singing – choir has restarted for the summer term – dabbling in writing and enjoying the garden with the hum of the bees and song of the birds.

So yes, I have managed to enjoy some of my pre-retirement, retirement, no-pressure #MyTime and I hope to continue to do so, whenever I can.

West Bay east cliff flood defence works

Yes the countdown is complete.  My 60th birthday today and a lovely walk in the bluebell woods of Powerstock, time to play with my new SurfacePro and a meal out for two at Melplash.

A stroll through the bluebells on Powerstock Common

Quiet, relaxing, a no pressure birthday.

And I have a week off work to enjoy lots more #MyTime too.

In a busy life it can be challenging to find quality time to do things “together” with one’s partner or close friends but, companionship, I realise, is quite an important and sustaining aspect of my life.  Home life is important to me, and those closest to me have the deepest importance.  I have a partner in my life whose support and encouragement I cherish and whose own endeavours I will always champion.  Those of us that choose to share our lives with another can often take for granted that they are there, and always will be, but who knows what life has in store for us.  The course of our lives can change in an instant.  So for me and mine, I want us to do what we can whilst we can, individually and together.  With the ongoing support from one to the other, I trust we each can summon our own personal strength and freedom to fulfill our promises to ourselves.

Forget me not

So, #MyTime is more than just mine.  I want to encourage you, dear reader, to take up your time too and when our paths cross let’s mark that time in the special moment that it is, and then move on, fortified by the energy created in #OurTime.

Just a week to go to that 60-year milestone that I pondered some nine months ago.  I’ve captured 40 aspects of #MyTime which for me will be a sort-of “permission” to get on and do some of those things I don’t think I have the time for and so don’t start them.  Well, I have started them, so now it is about picking up the threads, not beginning.

And my birthday gift to myself?  Well, I’ve planned some #MyTime.  I may share some of it – with my partner, David, with our cat, Henry, the garden, the bees, with poetry and song and whoever I may meet along the way but I’ve booked some holiday and will be staying home to explore and do whatever I want, whenever I want to do it.

I have little enough time to spare as it is and work often eats into my supposed free-time.  I need to work, at least for a few years more – seems I just never saved enough to secure myself an early release from the twice-moved pension extension (I think my plan was not to be bitter about that – not sure it’s working).

Anyway, if I am going to continue to work, and ideally I want to stay working at the level I currently operate if not for the same amount of time across the week, I will certainly need to look at my work/life balance.  It’s no good working at such an intensity, or covering long hours, if no energy is left to enjoy the down-time or the free-time.  A long while ago I realised that there was a knack to learning, not only how to handle the pressure with ease, but also how to handle times of ease with the right amount of pressure.  That’s what this project is all about really – not only wanting to crow-bar into a busy schedule some precious #MyTime but also to be ready to access #MyTime with a matching measure of energy and will to make the very best of #MyTime when I win some.

So, work/life balance seems a sensible consideration for #MyTime.  And when the time comes that I am not doing a paid job, I will still be mindful of the balance between those tasks I may have to do and those activities with which I want to spend #MyTime.  It’ll be no different really, the one enables, or is enabled by, the other.

#IamWriting

Week 38 already so with three weeks to go in #MyTime countdown, I’ve chosen writing.

I certainly don’t have anywhere near enough spare time to spend writing and I’d really like to carve out more but I do have the space now – in the “pig barn” – our studio in the garden. I can take myself away from any interruption, light a fire and power up the PC or put pen to paper. 

Today I’ve dipped into some of my older scribbles and added a page to my blog site.  I have a few ideas floating around my head and need to put in some research but it could happen just as soon as I can create some more #MyTime.

I used to spend a lot of time as a child and teenager drawing and sketching.  Lots of depictions of strange fashions, the garden pond and images from the TV or books.  Then I got into my 20s and started judging the outputs which was never what it had been about at all.  Of course, living with an artist means I’m more inclined to judge myself harshly when trying to express myself creatively but I recall the joy in drawing, the total absorption, and often the story I was playing out in my head.

Well, today I got out my sketchbook, dusted it off, and began to draw.  Not for long – just a few outline sketches of the cat (whilst he continued to strike a new pose every several seconds) and some interesting shadows cast in my eye-line.  Nothing I’m willing to share, mind!  Judging by the dates in my sketchbook, I hadn’t picked it up in some six years so somewhat rusty!  But, I think I’d like drawing to make a reappearance in my life and be a part of #MyTime.

With just five weeks to go in #MyTime countdown, today we’ve been talking about our diet and what we need to stay healthy into the future.  Well, I’m not expecting to be gaining lots of retirement time to be able to make changes, or take things at a different pace, as I hit this milestone, and I don’t expect to be able to slow down just yet.  So, if I am going to be continuing at a pace then I need to be sure I am generating sufficient energy and well-being to keep going and that means keeping active – physically, mentally and socially.  So, some careful thinking and planning in #MyTime activities, I think, to secure improvements in nutritional health.

A beautiful sun-shiny, clear blue sky, warm, Spring day today and although I’m sporting a broken wrist, I managed to do some one-handed gardening.

Enjoying the garden’s Spring gifts

A bit slow but I managed some effective weeding around the terrace and some of the raised beds.  I’ve been quite frustrated that I haven’t been able to do much in the garden so far this year so it was really nice to do, be in and around the garden all day, and see the results after just a little effort.

For #MyTime I want to be able to enjoy the garden, both gardening, gathering the produce – vegetables, fuit and flowers – and sitting and enjoying in the garden spaces.

The daffodils on the terrace Spring border are now giving way to primroses (always plentiful in Primrose Cottage) and it won’t be long before the lavender surrounds us with swathes of blue and heady scent.

If I can garden one-handed then I should be able to keep gardening and enjoying the spaces for more of #MyTime.  So, with just six weeks to go in my countdown, I want to include enjoying the garden in #MyTime.

Albert Beeson – photo taken November 1984

You went away.  I kept it cool
I saw your shadow in the pool
Often I sighed.  Sometimes I cried
I had to live.  I must not die.
Deepness of Love from there to here
Brought misty eyes into the clear
My arms if weak would gain the strength
Once more to hold my darling wench

A poem by A E Beeson

I’ve given a gift of poetry this week – a book for a birthday – Ted Hughes’ Crow – and I’ve listened to some storylines and poetry by WB Yeats at the Bridport Story Cafe, then I have dipped into some poetry penned by my grandfather several decades ago.  Sometimes I write a little something myself – a poem, a haiku, a lyric for a song and yes, I would like poetry in #MyTime, my quiet time and sometimes my noisy time.