Well, goodness gracious. My retirement day has finally arrived. Except that I’m not calling it retirement, I’m calling it rejuvenation, and I’m also still doing a few hours a week for my employer to see a couple of projects through to completion. So I’m not entirely severing links with the world of work.

My first official notification of retirement was my work email and IT access being switched off. As I still had ongoing projects the Human Resources Department had promised it would remain active, so my first morning of retirement was spent trying to persuade the IT department to switch it back on again, a task made all the more difficult by the entire HR office deciding to go on holiday simultaneously.

Anyone who has worked for an organisation of any size, or read any books by Kafka, will know that this is normal operational procedure. Eventually it was resolved and I headed off to London ready to catch a flight to a yoga retreat where I’m hoping to learn about yoga (I’m very much a beginner), visit some antiquities, a quaint village, a nature reserve and a beach. Though I might skip the beach sessions for a double dose of antiquities or extra nature.

Leaving the depths of the Yorkshire Dales for the bustle of London is like emerging from the ‘land that time forgot’. There was a big storm a couple of days before I left and a large beech tree that abutted a dry-stone wall by my house had swayed so much in the wind that the wall had fallen down. So just before I left I was busy arranging for a tree surgeon to come and have a look at it and briefing my neighbours on what might needed to be done.

In contrast, when I got to London I visited Kew Gardens in beautiful sunshine with blue skies and the yellow and reds of autumn leaves on trees from north America and China. I like to walk in the quieter parts of Kew, away from the big greenhouses and the main throng of visitors. There is a restful Japanese garden with boulders and raked gravel, and in the far corner beyond the lake, a woodland walk.

There won’t be any internet at the yoga retreat. I’m doing a digital detox as well as tying my limbs in knots, so won’t be able to see or reply to comments until I get back. Wishing everyone well!

Rowan on the Moor

A Moodscope member