Retirement Life in the Week Ended 20 April 2025

Just after the week where I booked a holiday because life has quietened down Dad went into hospital. Mum called me in the middle of the night and I hurried around to their bungalow in my pyjamas and called an ambulance. It turned out that Dad had Covid and was very poorly indeed when admitted. He’s still an in-patient and while he looks a bit better but it’s a bit touch and go as to whether he’ll see his 95th birthday. We’ll have to wait for what the next few days bring.

What Works For The Oldies

We were really concerned about Mum and Dad alerting us if there was a problem. Even using their landline is not terribly reliable. They point blank refused to wear pendant alarms as they didn’t like setting them off by accident – it happened a lot. So we took a multi-faceted approach.

We gave Mum an intensive lesson in using the mobile phone that she’s not keen on. And then Amazon devices came to the rescue as a backup. There’s an Echo Pop nattily in the main living room and the bedroom nattily colour matched in teal to the decor and a Facebook Portal. At various times Mum has used each of these to alert me. It’s usually for a pint of milk but this time she saved a life.

‘As she said the next morning. ‘Dad didn’t want me to call you but I decided that you’d be cross if I didn’t.’ It seems that there’s a very good reason that I’ve had to cultivate a reputation for being the family battle-axe!

What I’ve Finished Reading

This book has been on my morning reading list for a while. It’s so insightful that I’ve finished it twice and I might even read it again soon. It introduces a ten week self-guided course that can be completed on two different levels. The first is simply reading the book. With the second you are encouraged to engage more deeply and do the exercises. I’ve only done the easy version each time. Some day I plan to do the full course. It’s just a matter of having some time on my hands.

While The Presence Process shares being present in the here and now with mindfulness it emphasises experiencing healing by noticing the emotions associated with past wounds without pushing them away. I find it a really practical book and even though I’m not supposed to have done the exercises I often incorporate the conscious breathing technique in the book into my daily meditation practice.

What I’ve Been Sowing

I’m excited to have received two packs of melon seeds in the post this week, a watermelon and anana, a sweeter variety. I haven’t been able to get to the allotment as much as I wanted this week but I did find time to planted the seed in pots in the greenhouse. Of course growing delicious fruit was the main motivation for buying these but I also wanted something that covered quite a big area and acted as a weed suppressant. These will do the trick nicely.

What We’re Snacking On

Every so often we treat ourselves to produce from Crowd Farming. It comes direct from the farmer and cuts out the middleman in the supply chain. A ten pound voucher from the organisation encouraged me to order something.

Now Paul my partner loves the tasty oranges that have arrived before. I’m a avocado fan but no-one else in the family is. I wanted some but was worried that I wouldn’t be able to eat them all at their very small ripeness window. It’s difficult to catch.

I found a grower who was supplying a mixed box that arrived this week from Spain. All this fruit is hefty and heavy. I can’t vouch for the avocados yet as they’re not ready to eat but the oranges are beautifully sweet and flavoursome

What I’ve Been Making

It’s about time that I did some mosaicking. My neighbour’s daughter works on a Disney cruise ship. She’s scraped together a deposit to buy a flat for when she returns to land permanently. She’s named her little place ‘Scuttle’s Nest’ after a seagull in ‘Frozen’. I’m making a house sign to surprise her when she gets back to dry land.

Now I’m going to be honest and say that recreating a cartoon character wouldn’t be what I’d choose to do. But I like to challenge myself so I’ve come up with the preliminary design. I’ll be working on the little fellow and his home over the next few weeks. In the meantime here’s a picture of a real gull that I took earlier. As I’ve written before I have a love-hate relationship with the winged beasties.

Disclaimer

This post contains links to companies and organisations just because I’m happy with the products or services that they supply or I’m spreading the word about what they do. There may also be affiliate links to Amazon for books and other items that I am personally recommending. If you decide to make a purchase from them, I might get a little bit of commission at no cost to you.