The snorkelling Widow Badass. Taken with my GoPro Hero 5 camera.
I’ve been back home now for 3 days and am totally undone by a horrific cold I picked up in Barbados, thanks to my room-mate, who got it thanks to her grand-niece (who is awfully cute but still deserves the nick-name of Plague Child, IMHO). Feel free to indulge any feelings of schadenfreude here, if you so desire. I’ll wait. 😉
Since I am too ill to mix and mingle with anyone now that I am back home, I am putting together this contagion-freeblog post instead.
Seriously, this is one hell of a virus. I was kinda worried they were going to quarantine me at the airport, with suspected coronavirus!
This trip marks 4 years now, of coming to Barbados with my friend CJ, and staying at the same hotel (Coconut Court Beach Hotel), and we are still discovering new things to see and do every trip. One of our discoveries this trip included a wonderful dinner at the hospitality and culinary school in the Pommarine Hotel just 15 minutes walk from our place. We would definitely go back, having enjoyed a delightful 3 course meal for only 38 Barbadian dollars (~19 USD).
Another discovery was the half-day Garrison tour we took with this guy:
Peter, tour guide extraordinaire! He makes history not only come alive, but hella fun too.
We visited two forts, an armoury, re-visited George Washington House (and still learned stuff), and saw the changing of the guard in front of the Barbados Legion.
Changing of the GuardCannon overlooking beautiful Carlisle BayNew this year: We had a lovely friend join us every time we partook of the poolside BBQ dinner (yum!) at the hotel.
But for me, the absolute highlight was coming across some newly-hatched sea turtles making their way to the ocean, on one of my morning walks.
Squee!!! I’ve walked the beach every morning of my annual vacation for 4 years, hoping to see just this very thing.I stayed to watch every last one of these babies get swept away in the surf.
Most days were spent doing a whole lot of glorious nothing. If you call walking the board walk and the beach, relaxing in the shade, swimming and snorkelling in the warm sea, and reading e-books doing nothing. Ahhh…the life.
Does this woman look stressed to you?
Short video of the amazing fish I see everyday. Taken with my GoPro Hero 5.Loving my water socks (new to this trip). No more rock-shredded feet! Photo taken with GoPro hero 5 set to wide -angle.
Of course it was of the utmost importance to catch as many sunrises and sunsets as possible.
SunriseSunsetSunset and sangria (a perfect combo, no?) at Champers RestaurantColourful sea and sunset, taken at ChampersDramatic SunrisePicture perfect sunset. Low tide.And let’s not forget switching out sunrise boardwalk forays with observing the race horses getting their morning sea bath. At Pebble Beach.
There’s always something to learn while in Barbados. Here are some tidbits:
Island wisdomMore island wisdomThe last of my footsteps in Barbadian sand for this year.Cheers to another successful visit to Barbados! Photo taken by CJ
Barn cat taking shelter under the sheep milking stand
One of the nice things about working in a leadership position is you sometimes get to choose and build your team. And every once in a while you get someone applying for a position that you know immediately not only has the potential to be a great fit, but also a great friend. And so you hire her!
Jeanette and I met back in the early 00’s (I think?) when I was working at a large lab in Kitchener. She was instrumental in helping me implement the quality management system at that place. This transplant from South Africa with the no-nonsense attitude and the easy laugh made this tough job much more bearable. Even after we both went our separate ways to other careers, we still managed to keep in touch – mostly through social media but occasionally with an IRL meetup.
When last I saw Jeanette, she and her family were living in a beautiful backsplit in Kitchener, and she was working as a Six-Sigma Black Belt for a very large corporation, and baking and decorating gorgeous cakes in her “spare” time. Impressive!
Then, a few years back I noticed a change in her Facebook posts…it looked like she had moved and become a…farmer? I knew her corporation has closed the large local plant where Jeanette was based out of, but she was sent all over the country to work and seldom there, so I didn’t think much of it. Little did I know that Jeanette has used that closure as a decision point to springboard into a new life that was better in tune with her and her husband’s values. Thus, Red Maple Homestead was born. I was and am impressed – she is actually living my hippy-dippy dream, in harmony and alignment (my WOTY!) with nature and the land, and in the process of creating a bio-diverse, sustainable homestead.
In addition to keeping various farm animals and also bees, Jeanette grows and cans a lot of her family’s food. She estimates she has enough food stored in her pantry to keep them going for at least 2 years. If the apocalypse happens, I know whose doorstep I will be landing on. 😉
We had been making plans for a couple of years now, to have me come up to the farm but they had never worked out. Now here I was freshly retired, with much more time to coordinate a visit. So this past Monday (a gorgeous sunny day for a change), I hopped in the car and headed north to Jeanette’s – about an hour and half drive from my door.
We had a great catch-up, and fell back into our friendship at her bright and sunny kitchen table like the years apart never happened. After lunch it was time to tour the farm.
First up, one of 2 flocks of chickens at the homestead. These lovely birds are out and about, enjoying the nice weather along with Jeanette and me and the wool sheep and the dogs. The beautiful Phoebe, who provides some of the wool for Jeanette’s spinning and weaving. I think she is an Icelandic sheep but don’t quote me on this. 🙂Jeanette, giving some sheep the LOVE. Two of these ladies are quite pregnant but decided to hang on to their babies instead of giving me some lambs to photograph, much to our consternation. Next visit!Fuzzy, a newly “de-fuzzed” Angora rabbit whose additional job is to be a baby daddy to more of the same. A real sweetheart and oh-so soft.Cute little quail. I could watch and listen to these guys all day.Some of the other flock, enticed outside of the coop by some grains.
After meeting all of Jeanette’s “employees” and a walk around the property where we discussed future plans for the homestead, it was back inside for a slice of pie and a tour of her passion project – spinning and weaving!
A single raw fleece, from one of the “employees”. 🙂 Not from a wool sheep, but from a meat sheep – also can be spun into yarn. Close up of the springy fleece. Wool is such an amazing natural fibre.Jeanette handwashed a little piece of the raw wool, to show me its potential. Beautiful and so soft!Bats of washed and carded wool, reading for spinning. Is that some of Phoebe’s wool I see?One of several spinning wheels in Jeanette’s large, warm and welcoming family/craft room.Full bobbins of newly spun yarn.Skein of merino yarn spun by Jeanette. Not from her sheep though – apparently merino sheep don’t do well in our cold winters.Two of Jeanette’s 4 looms. She also has 2 knitting machines. Truly a passion!The other 2 looms. Besides wool rugs, there are also cotton tea towels and other textile projects on the looms for Jeanette and now her daughter to work on. (Clearly the weaving bug is contagious – hehehe!)A sampler Jeanette made in a weaving course she took. Look at the variety of patterns that can be created. I don’t think one could ever get bored.
By the end of this lovely tour and primer on spinning and weaving of yarn, I was itching to pick up my needles and get to work on some of my own wool stash, back at home. Of course, I think we could all predict this was gonna happen:
My haul from Red Maple Homestead, including a skein of Jeanette’s beautiful hand-dyed wool yarn for a future project!
What a wonderful day spent in the company of my friend! I’m looking so forward to coming back post-Barbados, and before I leave for the west coast. Jeanette and I have already made plans for my return visit, including a trip to some local businesses such as the Mennonite bakery down the road. Yes!
This trip checked so many boxes for me: meeting up with and supporting a friend, crafting, cute animals, beautiful countryside, and sustainability. And the chance to support an artisan and small business whose values align (that word, again!) with mine. Why did it take me so long to get up to Red Maple Homestead?!?!
Learn from my poor example and be sure to make the time to support your friends and small businesses and….
When I was a young teenager, yoga was nothing like it is now. I mean, the poses were the same but that’s about it. Yoga was this freaky foreign exotic “thing” that hippies did and no one else really knew anything about it. Yogurt (yoga/yogurt – work with me, people) was like that too. Unless you had immigrant parents like I did, and then it was something that was always in your fridge much to your friends’ disgust. Don’t even get me started on kale – another staple at my house and none of my friends’ during the 1970s. I was eating kale and yogurt decades before they were cool.If I don’t live to be 100, I’ll be pissed. But I digress…
When I was a young teenager, I saw a hand-lettered sign outside a church that offered free yoga in the basement. I don’t know how I knew what yoga even was as there was no internet in those days and I lived in a small, conservative southern Ontario town. How did people learn anything back then? I was THERE, back then, and even I can’t figure it out now! I probably read about it or saw it on the news as I was very into counter-culture from a young age and trying desperately to catch onto the tail-end of hippie-dom – I felt cheated by being born just a tad too late to partake in the full glory of it all. Anywho…there I go again, digressing...me and a couple of friends did end up going to the church basement to check out the yoga class being offered.
So, let me set the scene. There is a group of us in this dingy church basement – people are in a variety of outfits. Some of us are in exercise “leotards” – plain black with tights. Some of us are in t-shirts and shorts or sweatpants. We are all shoeless. I forget what the teacher was wearing or anything else about them – I think the teacher was female and youngish but don’t quote me.
Exercise wear – pre-Aerobics trend
There are no yoga mats. We are on the bare floor. There are no yoga blocks, yoga towels, yoga bands, yoga water bottles. No yoga clothes or gear…you get the picture. The instructor leads us through an hour of poses (asanas). There is a shavasana meditation at the end. Mind-blowing! Then we go home. There is no expectation of money changing hands for either party. As I recall, back then it was JUST. NOT. DONE. Yoga instruction was supposed to be freely given. No one taught yoga for the dollahz. There was no yoga “industry” as yet. It was just this weird kind of spiritual-y exercise that almost no one knew about (in my little corner of the world, that is) and I loved it.
A few months later my mom gifted me a little paperback yoga instruction book, written by an Indian lady and on every page was a picture of her (in her leotard) in a new pose with accompanying text on what it did for your body and your health. I used to have the book next to me on the floor of our family room as I tried to enact the asanas on my own, after the church basement yoga sessions had ended. I think by this time there was also a yoga show on American public television, but our house got 2 channels pre-cable so I only found out about it years later.
Then “Aerobics” hit, and I found a new love. I even participated in aerobi-thons, jumping around for hours to raise money for some cause or another. Ahh, the 80s! Scrunchies and leg warmers and neon and slouch-socks. Good times, good times. And leotards that were high-cut and anything but plain black.
I had a standing date with this lady almost every day when my kids were wee and still napping. One of Kathy Smith’s many videos was always cued up in my VCR. I credit aerobics with keeping me some semblance of sane during the demanding early years of motherhood.
I think yoga started being an “industry” around the 90s…I was busy with 2 little kids then on top of working, so most of the late 80s to mid 90s is a bit of a blur to me. But when I could raise my head up again, I noticed there were yoga classes being offered at the community centre and after-hours in school gyms and I started going to these. Still no yoga mats; we used exercise mats instead. No yoga clothes, but our aerobics gear worked well for this. And, it was no longer free. But pretty reasonable, as yet.
I think around 2010-ish our little village got an actual yoga studio – I had been taking classes at the rec centre with this instructor and he had become so popular that it was the next logical step for him to have his own place. Now the classes were getting crowded and pricey – not that I begrudge Mike the money – the studio was/is beautiful and the instruction was/is first-rate. But I couldn’t afford the time or $$ to go more than once per week, and his class schedule and mine didn’t always work out.
I still signed up for yoga sessions from time to time with some very good instructors at my local rec centre, but once a week just wasn’t enough for me and I dreamed of being able to develop a regular and more frequent practice. I bought many yoga DVDs to do at home but they didn’t quite satisfy – either the instruction was lacking or the poses felt rushed or it was beyond my current level. And the background music usually sucked. “When I retire”, I would say, “then I will be able to do more yoga, somehow and somewhere.”
So here I am retired for almost a full month and I am happy to report that I have been successful in starting a regular yoga practice – at home! And boy, do I need it! I have a long way to go to regaining my former state of flexibility, if that is even possible.
Maybe by the time I am 101 years old like yoga master Tao Porchon-Lynch I will be able to perform at least some of her moves. I can dream, can’t I? Is that a bath mat???
I’m so happy that I’ve found my dream instructor, on YouTube – believe it or not! Adriene Mishler as a yoga instructor is absolutely top notch, in my opinion. Yoga with Adriene is a popular website and channel (6 million subscribers, including moi!) with loads of free yoga videos of varying lengths and levels. For me, Yoga with Adriene is like stepping back in time to the early 70s, when yoga was free and yoga teachers seemed to be on a holy mission just to get yoga “out there” to the North American masses.
I’ve started with her beginner videos – going back to the basics with a beginner’s (yet again!) mind – as I begin treating my formerly desk-bound self to some full body stretching and mindful posing.
I’ve made it a lovely ritual – this daily yoga practice of mine – I light candles, put a heavenly scent in my diffuser, and (thanks to my daughter’s recommendation) I cue up DJ Taz Rashid on Ye Olde Spotify, to be the background accompaniment to Adriene’s calming and knowledgeable instruction as I prepare to meet myself on the mat.
And always, afterwards: a lovely bit of shavasana at the end of it all.
…is pretty bleak, or should I say pretty YET bleak today.
Pardon the weirdness caused by my window screen but the journal prompt did say view from the window, which I didn’t feel like opening and removing said screen. Anywho, you get the general idea…
If I was still working, I’d be very unhappy with January in Southern Ontario, thus far in 2020. For the past 3 weekends, every Saturday has been some kind of weather event – ice storm, snow storm, rain/freezing rain, more snow – it’s like someone has a hate on for Saturdays!
However, I am not working (and still giddy about this!) – which means every day is Saturday and I can get out for a walk or hike just about any time I want. Except for actual Saturday, according to the January weather gods.
My blogging and IRL friend Joanne and I have come up with a schedule of Wednesday hikes and so far the weather has cooperated. Two hump day hikes under our belts so far, and hopefully 2 more before we fly off to our separate adventures in February. Here’s some views I wish I had from my window, taken from this past Hump Day Hike:
Winter sun peeking through the bare trees at Limehouse Conservation Area. Stream at Limehouse Conservation Area
When not gazing out my window or getting outside for a walk or hike, I find myself doing a lot of puttering around the house. Which is lovely. I am a huge fan of puttering. However it can seem like I am not getting much done because I flit from task to task, leaving most things in a state of progress rather than working any particular task to completion (like I was more inclined to do when I was still working). I think this is because I am revelling in all of my newfound time. And truth be told, it’s kinda bugging me. So I came up with a game plan for today, to see if I can account for my time a bit better. Behold the task list:
To Do list in my journal for today: to keep me on track: focused on certain tasks, and with less flitting about. Not that that is necessarily a bad thing but you know…in moderation!
So far I have shredded some papers in what used to be my office, worked on ye olde blogge, yoga-ed, and did 3 loads of laundry. My slow-cooked chicken carcass broth will be done soon and it will become the base for both a soup and a curry later on today. I also flitted departed from my task list to make my own less toxic household cleaner and used it to clean up my toilet and sink (more about this on another post!).
What’s left? I plan on playing with my GoPro, to relearn how to use it before I leave for Barbados in a couple of weeks. And since the January weather gods have relented and it seems not too terrible today, I am going to venture out for a walk to stretch my legs.
Bleak or not, the view from my window is calling to me.
Hope your Saturday is going well! How productive are you inclined to be today?
The 2nd of the journal prompts I am trying to follow this year is to “write about the place you call home”. Rather than write about a particular city or area or even a dwelling, I am choosing to write about the place I always feel at home…out in nature. Since I have retired at the beginning of this year, I have been making it a priority to get out in nature just about every day because my body and soul needs it – to feel complete, to connect and to recharge.
Only animals have been on this gorgeous winter footpath, before I arrived. This photo and the following three were taken 2 days ago across the river from my abode.This path is well-used.My kind of heaven.Red berries at the edge of the pond.
Just 2 retired gals hanging out in the woods and up to no good, as usual.Toasting our good fortune to be out in nature on such a glorious winter day. Joanne always brings the best hiking…er…snacks. Pretty sure it is illegal to drink in conservation areas. See “up to no good”, above. Hehehehe!Gorgeous bark and mossesLog with fungusJoanne snapping a pic of the pot hole.Hilton Falls – in fine winter form due to the heavy rains we experienced lately.Later on another part of the trail: Joanne spotting another waterfall at the end of the reservoir. Snack break, again. So important, on the trail. 😉
I hope you enjoyed the place I call home. I know I did.
It’s been a little over a week now that I have been untethered from full-time work, and friends: I have to say that it is pretty sweet. I know it’s early days but I seem to have taken to retirement life like a duck to water. When my SIL texted me to ask how I was liking being a lady of leisure, I replied immediately that I was born for this role.
I keep waiting to feel guilty for not being “productive” and it hasn’t hit me yet. I don’t think it will. I feel more like a marathon runner who has finally crossed the finish line, upright and smiling. I did it, everyone saw me do it, and no one can ever take my medal away.
In other words: Yup, these are my laurels and I’m gonna happily rest on them.
I’ve had one work dream (that I can remember) so far. I was dealing with a scheduling issue in my dream and when I woke up and realized I didn’t work anymore, I burst out laughing.
I considered my very first day of retirement to be January 2 as that is the first day I would have been back at work, in my old life. Instead, I went with my BIL and SIL to the McMichael Gallery. We had no idea what was being exhibited in addition to their permanent collection and I was literally screaming with delight when I saw who was being featured.
Beloved Nova Scotian folk artist, Maud Lewis (1903-1970). Her paintings (done with house paint, someone said) evoke a happy, simple life – even though Maud’s life was not that happy.
Another gallery I really enjoyed was the exhibit of miniatures by Quebec artist, Clarence Gagnon. I felt we really lucked out with our spontaneous visit to this beautiful gallery of Canadian art. A great way to start off retired life!
So, what else have I been doing with all my new-found free time you may be wondering. Well, the decluttering has begun. I am starting with my home office (I guess it’s my only office now, duh!).
The desk, the iMac and the chest of drawers have already gone to new homes. In their places are boxes I have been collecting, to fill with items bound for my new home out west.
I’ve also updated my LinkedIn profile. I find that website difficult to deal with, and there was no option to change my status to “Retired” so I had to get a bit creative. I marked the end date of my last position and created a new “job” for myself: CEO of Everything at Widow Badass Retirement Industries. The comments from my colleagues upon my “new role” have been heart-warming. I still get random people wanting to join my network though, so I don’t think everyone got the joke.
I suppose I just could have taken my profile down, but there are some friends that I only communicate with through LinkedIn so up it stays. For now.
In other news: I went for a mid-week lunch with a couple of retired friends last week, at a lovely bistro in Elora. We supped on roasted apple and brie soup and enjoyed fresh salads while we watched the snow fall with increasing ferocity outside. By the time lunch was finished I couldn’t see the opposing bank of the river through the flakes, so it was a good time to head back home in case the highway got closed due to whiteouts. Despite the weather, a gal could used to this kinda life! And I fully intend to.
Other than these activities, I’ve been doing a lot of reading and relaxing (including enjoying more time to watch Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Crave TV)…and getting out almost every day for a hearty walk.
There’s beauty to be found in all seasons and all kinds of weather.
Keeping up the time-honoured tradition of stealing borrowing from other bloggers.
Now that I am retired from work I have no more excuses for not blogging regularly (or more regularly) due to lack of time, right? Yet the problem remains of not always knowing what to blog about. So in order to “prime the pump” as the saying goes, writing prompts are an excellent resource. AJ Blythe – a delightful Aussie writer and blogger I follow – recently posted a list of 52 writing prompts that I promptly stole borrowed, after she graciously told me “the more’s the merrier!”
Party on, Wayne! And this is how these things spread. So now I’ve told you about 52 Journal Prompts. Who’s gonna steal from me? 😉
My first prompt – What are you thankful for? – is very apropos and wasn’t even needed as I had planned for a first post-work life post on this very topic.
What am I thankful for? A better wording for me might be “what am I not thankful for?” For I am truly thankful for everything in my life that has brought me to this very day. Even the mistakes, missteps and sorrows have helped make me into the person I am today, and for that I am truly grateful and thankful.
I am fortunate that due to the privilege I was born into (white straight cis-gendered), hard work, and a little bit of luck, I am one of the lucky group of people that even GET to retire, let alone retire at age 60 and in good health.
I wake up every morning (as I did long before I retired) and express gratitude for my life and the people in it, before my feet hit the bedroom floor. That sets the perfect tone for me to start the day, no matter what else is going on or expected to go on that day.
I don’t know if I will continue to use one of these prompts per week for the whole of 2020, but I’d like to. Let’s not call this a resolution though, OK? 😉
Days left in this year and my career, that is! Holy cats, how did I get here so fast? It seemed like only yesterday I was starting out, working (at minimum wage) even before officially graduating with my sparkly Bachelor of Science degree, at my first full-time job.
As the sun sets on the year and my working life…Late December Sunset on the river that is a few steps from my home.
I was one of the lucky ones – actually working in my field, thanks to a part-time job in a lab I picked up while working on my undergrad…that morphed into a full-time position once my studies were ended. But enough reminiscing on that for now. Maybe I’ll do a retrospective (or two) on my working life at some point on ye olde blogge, but that’s not the focus for today.
Some of you may have noticed it’s been a while since my last post – 28 days, to be exact. Although I am not the most prolific of bloggers, I’ve been doing pretty well for the past couple of years, so this was a long hiatus for moi.
For 2 reasons, mainly.
Reason #1 – this last month of work has been waaaay more draining than I had anticipated. My successor took over officially on December 16th, and I’ve been very focused on giving her a smooth start (by performing some unpleasant tasks that needed doing, so she didn’t have to deal with them); and trying to organize/categorize/put into words all of the things that are the Lab Manager’s responsibility and that I have to deal with on any given day. Her comment on the first day of the job: “Wow, here I am dealing with at least 7 time-critical things at the same time.” Only 7? You’ll get used to it…hehehe!
I’ve been so involved with a successful handover that it’s infiltrating my dreams. A few days ago I woke up terribly tired because it seemed like all night I was going through my computer files in my sleep – finding an apparently vital statistics spreadsheet that I’d been keeping and needed to remember to share with the new Lab Manager. When I woke up, I couldn’t remember what this damned important file was all about so I figured my anxious brain just made it up for my dream.
The point is: I’ve been coming home exhausted and needing my free time to decompress, unwind and recover/restore myself for the next day/week.
Reason #2 – not feeling the Christmas at all this year. Could be related to Reason #1, but I don’t think so. I’ve fallen out of love with Christmas for many years and many reasons. But this season it was especially severe.
For the first year ever, I didn’t put up a tree. Even though I probably should have if only because it would have given me an opportunity to sort through my Christmas decor bin, prior to my mid-year move to the West Coast. No tree or other decor, no Christmas cards or letter to friends – no nothing.
So this kept me off the blog because who needs to listen to me rant about how I was am feeling like Christianity is the one of the biggest hammers in the Patriarchy toolbox and other such angelic thoughts as I have been having this month…HAH! Especially at one of the most celebratory times of the year, for most people, regardless of religious leaning. Consider it a public service that I’ve kept quiet. 😉
However, I have enjoyed living vicariously through other bloggers I follow as they posted about their Decembers, and their celebrations with family and friends, and tried to keep my bitter thoughts to myself. As one should.
I did take some time out to celebrate the winter solstice, despite everything else going on in my life and my mind. A reflective and solitary celebration of my gratitude for my life and for the natural world that hosts me – welcoming the longest night, and then the rising sun the next morning.
Welcoming back the light on December 22, from my kitchen window. The beginning of actual winter – the time of dreaming – and of beginning a new year and new life.
In closing this last post of mine for 2019, I’m going to take a moment to also thank YOU – all of the readers of ye olde blogge for being “here” for me. For taking the time to read and comment; for your encouragement and humour; for your insights and oh-so kind words. I do love this community so, and can’t wait to keep interacting with you all in the coming year when I will have much more time to do so!
