Retirement And What It Looks Like For Me

Yesterday was my last day at work. I am now officially retired from the county position I held for a little over a decade. My coworkers gave me a wonderful send off! It was a great party and a great time with coworkers from all over the building stopping by to visit.

I was given, among other things, an engraved clock and a quilt with signatures and best wishes from coworkers written all over it.

A question asked of me several times has been "What's next?" Well life as we know holds a lot of surprises but the plans so far are to finish packing the house up for our mid-December move to Oklahoma and then in and among unpacking, have Christmas time with family.

Once we are settled there will be no problem for me to keep busy. I have always had lots of hobbies and lots of books to read. I can honestly say I am never bored. There is always something to do.

The things I hope most to do to begin with are:

• Getting familiar with our new surroundings - the town, nature walks, photographing plants I see, and checking things out while I am taking the dogs for their walks.
• working on my genealogy
• working on my scrapbook
• getting into a bible study group
• sewing
• reading
• getting familiar with the best plants for our new area and doing some gardening 
• and taking lots of road trips with hubby to explore Oklahoma and surrounding states

I think just this list alone should keep me busy for quite awhile!

Nature and Weather Journals

I am a big fan of journaling and I actually do more of my writing in notebooks than I ever do online.

I think journaling is therapeutic,informative,historic and fun. I think writing can be creative. I think a person can also do many types of journaling on paper that is more creative than can be done online, such as the scrapbook style writing.

I'd like to focus on a variety of journal types and journal topics from time to time and the first one I would like to mention is the nature journal.

A nature journal can be observing wildlife, plant life, weather, anything of your choosing, or all of these. Anything found in nature. Sketches can be drawn, pictures taken and placed in your journal,notes recorded. There are really no limits here. Crafters might like a book filled with leaf rubbings and pressed flowers.

The exciting thing is that when you create a nature journal you are recording nature history that might one day be one of a kind and relied upon to know what an area was like in this day and time.

The blog "Unplugged Sunday" wrote a great article on Journaling the seasons. You will find it here:

Unplugged Sunday

If you are more artistically inclined and want to draw sketches of plants or animals, a nature journal such as the one found here, then that might be the way you would want to go with your journal:

Nature Journal-Signs of Spring

The thing to remember about nature journaling is that you don't have to travel a long distance to record nature. It can be in your back yard. You might record the bloom times of the your flowers in your garden; or you might go to a nearby park to make your observations. Whatever method and location you choose, the result will be a satisfying and enjoyable book and hobby.

Awesome Gardening Resources

Most of my thoughts are on gardening right now. So a gardening post seems appropriate.

I have tomatoes, celery, cabbage and bell peppers sprouting under lights so far.

In the dozen or so raised beds outside I have in combinations of what survived from last season and what we recently planted: Collards, New Zealand Spinach, Asparagus, Cabbage, Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, Jalapenos, Bell Peppers, Swiss Chard, Strawberries, Spinach, Carrots, Onions and Radishes.

I will report back later on how we are doing with all these but what I wanted to do today is share some favorite gardening websites and resources. So here goes:

Daves Garden Watchdog - reviews of online plant stores and catalogs

Yucca Do Nursery - heat tolerant plants

Plant Delights Nursery - good assortment of plants

Seeds of Change - Seed catalog

High Country Gardens - Low Water Plants

Bluestone Perennials - another great source for plants

BBB Heirloom Seeds - heirloom seed source

Onalee's Seeds - small company - nice assortment of seeds

Wildseed Farms - wildflower seeds

Native American Seeds - native seeds

Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds - heirloom seeds

Seed Savers Exchange - nonprofit - dedicated to saving and sharing heirloom seeds

Heirloom Seeds - all heirloom seeds - they are good but order early they hand pack and sometimes they are slow.

Old Farmers Almanac Garden Planner  - use this online planner to plan your garden

Gardenate Gardening Calendar - Use this resource to know what to plant each month

I know I am leaving something out so I am sure there will be a follow up post but this should be plenty to check out for now! Happy Gardening!