When I was sorting through material things I found it relatively easy to do. I could feel and see what exactly what it is I wanted to take forward to the next phase of my life. Luckily back then I had the time and the space I needed. I got it done and felt happy that The Air Ambulance charity would benefit from my ruthlessness…

However what I hadn’t bargained for when I retired and savouring the new found stillness of my life, hurtling behind me came the baggage, all of it. With such a force it It stunned me somewhat. It’s still coming but I am managing to put it all in store and there will come a time, hopefully sooner rather than later, it can be sorted and I will decide what comes with me and what will be rightly trashed forever.

And that is why I think I’m here with my new blog..to unwrap it, make sense and peace with it and move on…or at least sit still with ease.

WordPress offer tips, tutorials really, for newbies like me to understand how to get the best from their platform, so over the next few days I’m going to concentrate on those guidelines and see where it leads me. I want to write daily, but maybe those posts will be a tad random until I’ve consumed all the knowledge WordPress has to offer me…or what I can take in and utilise.

We start off in life looking up and out and forward. Then comes a time with some living done we get to look both ways, back and forward with memories and what might be’s in equal measure. The ideal business end would be to have the ability to hopefully have a long, happy and healthy life to look back on, with a few chances of special moments to come.

But an ideal life and an ideal end rarely exist.

Currently I’m towards the late Autumn of my life, we could say.

And I know how I look back and forward is crucial choice to make and adhere to.

‘ I don’t know how I found the time to work’. Many of us have probably heard that somewhere along the line. But I found it to be the truth, for me anyway.

The dog in his wisdom chose to wake me at a few minutes past 5 this morning. It’s a thing with him..always a few minutes past 5,6 or 7am. I get up make coffee and then depending on the hour turn off the light and try to snuggle back down, but it it rarely happens that I go back to sleep. Once those cogs get in motion it’s game on.

We go for an early walk, at the moment it’s just getting light when we head off. Firstly to a very close by Green Space ( they call them now) and then into the car for a short drive up the hill to another green space, but called a park.

Here he gets to run loose. On a lead through the small flock of aging sheep ( although to my absolute amazement he walked straight past them whilst accidentally unleased, a while back. My boy has come a long way)

Being a mixed breed I don’t really know which dog I’m talking to as he legs it, following his nose. I can smell fox, so only he knows what else is in the mix. The huge space is enclosed and not another dog in sight, so I don’t worry. He’s having fun. When that novelty has worn off he brings me his ball to throw. Luckily it’s one of those on a string, so it can go quite far. And then it’s home for breakfast, serving his Lordship first.

With the lovely Nick Ferrari on LBC Radio keeping me in the picture I prepare something to eat. With that done the sink cleared of dishes and my surrounding area looking vaguely ‘ guest ready’ I sit down for a while. On my tablet I’ll do a quick check of my socials and then an an hour or so of various and varied puzzle games, in a vain attempt to exercise and hold on to some grey matter.

Meanwhile His Nibs who woke me just after 5am is stretched out on 7/8ths of the sofa, fast asleep without a care in the world…

A couple of pigeon holes there. A reminder not to judge, not to try and classify someone so quickly, easily, foolishly.

Folk tend to big themselves up on how good a judge of character they are, don’t they? Not me, I was always rubbish at it. To the extent I gave up altogether and then wondered what took me so long.

Have you not thought to yourself once in a while over the years ‘ oh, she seems nice’ or ‘ I don’t like him’ only to realise a day, month or eons later she wasn’t quite so pleasant as you once thought and he was a nice guy, a good egg?