so this is leisure then

So retirement means - mmmmm

so much time to chill that I am really good at it ... so good that I totally forgot to blog. I would like to say it is because I was super busy - but nope - not that! It is in part as I am sick of not having a computer. We are awaiting a new mother board now as a last ditch attempt to save it ... even if only temporarily.

 

Today I have done nothing and it feels awesomely good. I think my body ... and my mind ... is recovering from 35 years of full on work and 29 years of full on responsibility and accountability.

 

I haven't even done much new crafting. To be honest I don't know what I have actually done today other than relax and enjoy myself with Nigel. Simple pleasures like walks and fraps.. And heck - that is doing something isn't it.

 

I do have a new page to share though which I made two weeks ago -- pre computer fail -- celebrating selling my office! Now that sounds bizarre doesn't it. I had been a head for 29 years and over that time I had been blessed with many many gifts. Lots of them came home and many were edible and they were snaffled up. However, I had an office full of toys and pictures and things the children had made or given me. Most of them were cats of course! The girls used to love coming into the office and looking at the things and playing with them. Counting the number of cats on pictures, ornaments, soft toys, cushions etc became quite the game (there were in the region of 90 I believe. The question was ... what to do with them when I retired. Clearly I had nowhere to put them and they were of little value other than sentimental and so I decided to raffle them for charity. The girls would be happy as they would have a little bit of my office to keep, the charity (Lewis Manning in Poole) would be happy and I would be happy. Win all round. In the end it was a tombola and I raised £80 and a lot of smiles.

 

Faces blurred out obviously

 

Consequently limited new scrapping but I do have things the still share from Nigel's 60th book and I better finish up those posts before he turns 61!

 

These two pages represent his love of all things animal. I tried, in his book, to capture all of the different side of him. The different things that make him HIM and that make him tick. And animals of all sorts are a really important part of his life.

Pf course there are our fur babies - but it goes way beyond that. He has an affinity for animals. He ;speaks' to them. Seriously. And they listen.

I have seen it so many times, from friends dogs and cats to the camel in Israel, wild cats of all types, birds and donkeys and the most amazing F1 bengal cat who as so wild they caged him outdoors and he stopped and make eye contact with Nigel and crept over and purred as he 'spoke' to the cat in his mind.

 

He really is the animal whisperer.

 

  and he had such a special bond with Bruno that even the keepers said he recognised Nigel and behaved differently. And then ... of yes ... then he marked him as his own as only tigers know how!!!

 

 

 

Today I am thankful for

• retirement (I think that is going to be a daily thankful for the foreseeable future)
• my wonderful animal loving husband
• people who make mother boards ... finger crossed

 

Comments

[Barb inAK]

What a great idea to have the raffle. I would have never thought of something like that. I'm sure the girls were thrilled to participate in that :-)

Great layout and photos of your "animal whisperer" through the years. I feel those kind of layouts that span years and show the consistency of a trait, or even a "before and after" theme, are fun to create and add to an album :-)