Fresh beginnings

The 7th July has come and gone and I'm now officially retired. As one might have expected the weather has also changed from warm and dry to cool with a lot of rain. The gardening plan is rather on hold! None the less it is good not to have had the alarm clock on for the last few days and to feel able to do as I please. What I have 'pleased' to do is to start a bullet journal as a way of tracking plans for the month including all of those tasks which have been neglected due to work. So the clearing out of cupboards and bookcases is under way, the washing is up to date and the ironing close to being so. The windows have all been cleaned and the house is in a good state of tidiness. Not that retirement should be all housework -- that would be just changing one sort of work for another unpaid version. I plan to spend at least a part of each day on craft activities. And yesterday was wool winding. A strangely satisfying task with a pleasant whir of swift and wool winder. Especially pleasing as it was happening on a Monday!

The last fling before the next thing....

So the 5th July.  I'm in an Aberdeen hotel the night before my last piece of paid work before I retire.  All the preparation is done, and the invoice three-quarters completed ready for the final additions on Friday.  The sending off the invoice and updating of this year's accounts will be the last proper work that I do, from lunchtime on the 7th I plan to be well and truly retired!

I've collected the final printed labels from the graphic designers/print shop and spent a pleasant evening a week ago packaging up and labelling all the socks I have already made.  I do hope that the 'Made in Stirling' shop will want to stock my products but if not I shall find a craft fair at which to sell them.

But socks will be mostly an evening occupation.  Through the summer I hope to get the garden sorted out -- pretty much rebuilt really, and also to go through the house thinning out 'stuff' and reorganising as I go.  I have no doubt that the paper bin will end up very filled and I shall also have a lot of shredding to do.  Some redecoration may be necessary thanks to the ministrations of Wee Hamish and Archie, and once the winter comes I shall be happy to get back to some quilting.

Before then of course, there are a few jollies to enjoy - a short trip to Wales to help with house-packing, a week-long trip to the Faroe Islands for a knitting and stitching holiday and a couple of visits to London to be wined and dined by friends.