Is it possible that retirement is supposed to be simple? Or at least a simpler version of the life we used to lead? Not an original thought you’ll say but it actually is for me. I think I can say with one thing and another our retirement lives have been quite complicated. Three vehicles, three…
Category: How to have a happy retirement
A short retirement blog and not the one I set out to write
Despite the name of this blog (The Summerhouse Years, in case you’d forgotten) and the image on the header of me sitting in our summerhouse (the first one), I have rarely written these blogs actually in the summerhouse itself. No excuses, it’s not as if I have to walk miles to it (it’s right out…
Retirement blog about DIY gone mad but in a good way
Yes, it’s DIY gone mad, gone doolally in fact. I wrote recently about having a number of projects on the go rather than one big one. As you will shortly discover I’ve managed one big one as well as all the small ones I’m about to provide photographic evidence of during these unusual retirement times….
Retirement blog about splendid (note the word) isolation
For as long as I can remember I’ve had this fantasy. Before you’re imagination runs riot let me elaborate. I’ve had a hankering for isolation long before it became fashionable. This doesn’t make me unique by any means, lots of people dream about living on their own desert island (or similar) as above, far away…
A retirement blog about make do and mend
If there is an expression more resonant than the one above – make do and mend – of that war-time spirit, then I don’t know what it is. And I say this as somebody born 3 years after the Second World War ended. I suppose it must still have been circulating as a life philosophy…
A short, but optimistic, Friday Retirement blog : Always look on … (you know the rest)
And they say every cloud has a silver lining or every silver lining has a black cloud as we say here in Yorkshire. This little crisis has certainly brought out the best in Mrs Summerhouse. As we drive through the countryside* she’s oohing and ahhing at the little lambs. I’m thinking we could eat them…
Retirement blog: Downsizing? Not for me, thanks
I can’t think why I needed reminding to write a retirement blog on downsizing. I mean it’s such an obvious topic for the retired person isn’t it? So many good reasons why we should do it. The obvious one I suppose is freeing up some cash to supplement our pensions. Can’t argue with that rationale….
Retirement blog : Intelligent retirement thinking
I think I have written before, in these retirement blogs, that many of my ideas for a blog come to me as we are walking the dogs. They come from nowhere and, unless I make an effort to remember them like telling Mrs Summerhouse to remember the idea or repeating them until I think I…
Australian retirement blog : a rare guest blog
What strikes me about this report of retirement in Australia is how active and social it is. And also how packed with travel. I know now where my travel ambitions went to, my friend used the whole allocation. Maybe it’s just me that leads a shy and retiring life maybe the rest of Britain is…
Retirement blog about keeping busy
If there is one bit of retirement advice that seems to hold true across the universe, it is those two small words – (you have to) keep busy. This mantra might almost be first on any list of things to do / ways to behave to have a successful retirement. I might speculate a while…