Retirement Life In The Week Ended 11 May 2025
It’s been a funny old week. Until Friday afternoon I was waiting for a hospital doctor to certify my Dad’s death so that his body can be released for cremation and the family can register his death. It took some time. But perhaps the medical profession have to prioritise the living over those they can’t help anymore. In the meantime everyone’s been looking after Mum who has taken the absence of her partner of sixty two years with fortitude. Most of our sadness was expressed during Dad’s last weeks when he was poorly. It’s a relief that he isn’t suffering anymore.
And life goes on. Here’s what we’ve been up to. It’s shorter than usual but I’m adjusting to life without Dad.
What I’ve Achieved
Allotment work has been hotting up. The plants in the greenhouse are flourishing and I seem to be doing a lot of watering and weeding. We’ve harvested rhubarb and the first of this season’s lettuces.
With the help of the old man we spent a very fruitful day emptying compost from our largest bin and using it along with six sacks of manure to fill my new asparagus bed. We can’t harvest the crop for a couple of years, the plants need that long to strengthen, but when we do we’ll have masses of spears each spring to eat ourselves and give away.
What I’ve Downloaded
Each morning a cheeky chappie has been waking me by singing in the street outside. It sounded a bit like a squeaky bicycle wheel but obviously wasn’t So I downloaded the BirdUp app to my phone to find out what he is. It so happens that it’s a great tit that’s been chirping its little heart out. I’ve also been able to identify that there’s a blackcap living near the Torquay branch of toolstation!
What I’ve Been Up To
For not much more than the price of the pints that we drank from the bar we went to see Brixham town’s rugby team on Saturday. Rumour had it that if they’d won the game they would have been playing at Twickenham. But sadly in the last minute they were beaten by Oundle. The final score was 27-31. In spite of the local team’s defeat it was jolly entertaining. And I even got a chance to kick the ball when it came my way. When the new season starts in the autumn we could be regular attenders.
What I’m Grateful For
This is my foot adorned with a anklet that I wore until I lost it! Seeing the photo again has given me an idea – I might make another! I’ve been trying to up my exercise lately but my attempts have been somewhat scuppered by pain across the bridge and above my big toe . We’re lucky enough to have a physiotherapist based at our GP practice and she worked out the likely problem. Funnily enough it’s likely to originate in the calf so she’s given me some stretching exercises to do. These will form the start of a new regular fitness regime that I’m hoping to establish as a habit. Wish me well!