I always knew retirement was going to be better than good......

....... it was going to be great. And I thank the many happy retirees over my working life for this belief. The commonalities I admired in all the retirees were - excitement of life, a new found physical wellness, and the joy of freedom to do what they wanted when they wanted. It was hard not to feel tantalised and envious of their lives while I slogged away in my work. Deep down I wanted all these happy aspects in my life too.

The little bit of information I took and stored in some dark recess of my brain was to do with making the decision to retire. I must have known it would be useful for when I arrived at the decision making stage in my life. "You'll know when it is time for you to finish, no-one can tell you, it is very individual, it will just hit you when it is time to finish work!" And guess what? They were so correct as my emotions felt like a friend. It seemed right to step away from my career, I don't want to do this any more, I am done. It was a new feeling and it felt so right.

As quickly as my work psychic had been such an important part of me, there was no doubt that a retirement psychic was taking over. And as my dreaming and wants toyed with me, an offer of a redundancy came from the powers to be in the Education Department. As a strong believer in synchronicity I accepted the redundancy without any regrets, feeling content that it was the right thing to do.

(The Italian walk, photo taken by Bill Bennett)

(Dinkelsbuhls, Germany Photo taken by Bill Bennett)

Forwarding 8 years on I remain delightfully happy and content in my retirement, it is everything and more. No longer do 'the man of the house' and myself need to apply for leave. We are free to do what we want when we want. And we have! Long distance walking treks in Portugal, Spain, Italy and Germany, an adventurous trip to the port town of Ushuaia in Argentina for us to board the ship Ocean Endeavour for an expedition trip in the Antarctic and the daily gardening, cooking, reading, walking and riding the bikes along with yoga/meditation practice has resulted in a life of balance, full of activity and quiet peace.

(Warsburg Germany, photo my me, Angie)

So it was with great excitement that as I read your post Hive account@liselle, introducing 'Hive Silver Bloggers'. I too believe that there is a lot of life in my old bones too.

Thank you for the invite.
Cheers and thanks for reading

And as always there is a time for flowers from the garden, as Hive account@dswigle says it is alwaysaflower opportunity. Here is a very pretty and delicate magnolia, definitely the last bloom for this season as autumn takes over with its chill. How can one not love the look and beautiful scent of this flower.