How it's been so far

On September 1st 2015 my new life as a retired person began. So far I have barely had time to pause for breath.  All the things that older people say about not knowing how there was time to go to work seem to be true.

So far I have worked extra at Elizabeth Gaskell's House, joined a choir, bought a bicycle, bought bird feeders for the garden, been to the Lake District for a couple of days, done more shopping and met friends.

Of course the weather has been pretty good which helps a lot. One of the things I aim to do is to spend much more time outside which is much easier at the moment than it will be in a few months time.

Of course I have missed people at work a little,  as well as the structure of the week. Its going to take a bit of time to get used to having to decide what to do with lots of days, but I'm grateful that I have "hobbies" and interests.

This blog is going to be a bit of diary about my life as  well as a way of continuing to share some of my reactions to books I have read. There haven't been many books so far. I'm reading A Pair of Blue Eyes by Thomas Hardy for my reading group meeting next week. It feels strange reading Hardy again- but at least this one is relatively short and easy to follow, though some of the language seems very convoluted. But what an archaic story it seems now- all about reasons for  and attitudes to marriage. Young people could read it as an historical guide to how women were constrained in the 19th Century and how far we have moved since.

Tomorrow I shall go and join my local library. For obvious reasons I haven't been a member of my local service for many years, having had an excellent library at my work base. I'm curious to rediscover using a branch library for browsing and reservations and even though times are hard for libraries, I'm optimistic that I'll find my local library to be somewhere I want to go regularly. I'll let you know.