This winter is my first of retirement years. My tasks in life have opened and filled many cracks in my calendar. I am really happy that there are still some places that are open for resting and frittering and thinking. I am going to put some blogging in there too. Lucky everyone (drips with irony).
So on January 26, 2016, I am looking at the gray skies and track-filled snow in our backyard, and thinking about how to be a good scout about the next couple months. The days are getting longer. That's a happy thought. The first long stretch of taxing sub-zero days has passed us by without much damage. This requires my mind's eye to look to hopeful images of green and colorful and accept that I must wait.
These remaining 60+ days until temperate days of growing and blooming and comfort outside, require I wear bulky clothes on my bulky frame. They have me just a few steps from my kitchen, and from the oven that makes yummy grain-filled delights. They require foreign fruits and veggies...ripened in transport and containing whatever chemicals required for beauty in Minnesota grocery produce coolers. I am dreaming and planting in my mind my two rows of straw bale gardens -- and the community garden spot I was given. I miss my morning wanderings through our little town...stopping for a cool down at the library with a quick periodical perusal. I look forward to little trips around Rice Marsh and along Lake Susan's shore. That's the part of retirement I love. Books, and birds, and paths and plants growing from starts to blooms to fruit. Sigh. This requires patience.
I look forward to lots of steps on my Garmin, and restful reads poolside on mornings at Lifetime. A workout, a large ice tea, and an hour by the pool. Enough said. This requires my current workout system of fleece and layers and wet shoes and dry shoes...of repeated playlists on the incline of the treadmill...of podcast after podcast...well, those happen outside too, I must admit.The requirements of spring and summer are sunscreen and hats and sun goggles, garden tools in the dirty backpack... and water bottles... fairness requires this list, but I like all those requirements.
Required patience.
sigh. Toll paid.
