This Week I...

I feel like I’m lurching from week to week without actually achieving anything. This isn’t true, but that’s how it feels. I do have a diary that pretty much everything goes into, because if it isn’t in the diary, it won’t happen! But I don’t really look at that to see what has happened in the past – it is just to make sure I know what is coming up in the future.

We have been keeping a diary since we retired, but in reality, it is Les who has the discipline to write in it every day. Me – it’s just not part of my routine, so I don’t even think about it. I’d like to say that I’m simply too busy doing things to write about them, but that wouldn’t be true. And because it is Les who does the updates, I don’t think about what has happened each day, and the day passes without me consciously thinking I’ve actually done something.

One reason for keeping a diary in retirement is so that feeling of just going along, day by day, with nothing ever happening, and thinking that the retirement  is being wasted, can be kept at bay. Because I’m not writing in the diary, I need to find another way. This week, I thought I’d try taking photos as a way of remembering. Taking photos helps me remember in two different ways – the most obvious, in that I can look at the photos at a later date and remember, but also because the simple act of taking the photo makes the moment stick in my mind better.

Here are some of the moments from my week.

I finally got around to making tomato chutney from the tomatoes given to me at tennis last week.

I was given more tomatoes at tennis this week!

I picked tomatoes from my own plants. Maybe I find a recipe for tomato sauce?

Friends I have known for more than 30 years visited!

We toured through Ben Chifley’s house, bringing back memories of our own parents’/grandparents’ homes. My mum still uses a toaster like the one in this photo!

To keep the historical theme going, we visited Sofala for the Rebellion on the Turon.

I added to my egg cosy repertoire – these will go on sale in the Craft Shop.

I realised how weird the weather has been this year, with the apple tree having flowers on it – it’s autumn! Not spring!!

We rescued a frog from inside the house. It had been company in the shower for one of our guests, but when it ventured out into the living area, and Maggie-cat got interested, we thought it would be better off in the greenhouse.

And that was the week that was, so I know I've actually been reasonably busy. Do I think I can keep up this photo diary? Who knows. But I do like the idea of having a pictorial diary of my retirement, even if it is just of jars of chutney and piles of tomatoes!