Friday, August 19, 2016

This Week in Five Faves

We are nearing the end of summer break for The Professor.  In fact, he has ridden his bike to the university campus a couple of times to spend the day in his office.  It definitely feels weird to not have lesson plans looming over me, to not be thinking subconsciously all the time about source materials, assignment sheets and checklists.  But I think I can deal with it. {insert large smiley face here}  The weeks are different in summer and in retirement.  Every day but Sunday feels like Saturday.  Indeed, The Professor calls Monday the First Saturday, and Tuesday Second Saturday, and so on.  It takes more effort for me to focus on getting something done and also on remembering what happened on Fourth Saturday.  That doesn't make it any less important.  Here are my Friday Fave Fives.

1.  My Garden.  I consider my little garden to be a place of serenity and calmness.  This week we planted a couple of fall crops-- dinosaur kale and red carrots.  I do love me an experiment.  The kale I planted in the spring and yes, it does grow to dinosaur size.

2.  Butterflies and Lizards.  The monarch butterflies are hatching.  It's a good thing it's that time in their life cycle because the caterpillars have eaten every green thing off my three milkweed plants.  Finally, I caught a photo of one.  They fly and flit around constantly after they hatch because they are trying to dry their wings.


And the lizards are so cute.  Here is a baby lizard.  He couldn't have been more than 1.5 inches long.



3.  Yarn.  The movie.  One evening our local yarn shop sponsored/arranged for the showing of an indie film titled "Yarn".  The Professor and I decided we'd make it a date--dinner at our fave Mexican restaurant (Sharky's) and then drive up to Ventura to watch the movie.  I was amused that of course I saw many of my guild friends there, but most of us had knitting in our hands or our bags.  An added bit--there were a surprising number of men in the audience and not all of them were husbands accompanying their wives.

4.  Cooler weather.  This week our temperatures have been Ventura County perfect.  I know so many people are either very hot or very cold, but here it has been high 70s, morning coastal fog to keep things cool, sunny days after the cloud cover breaks and evaporates.

5.  My computer desktop screen rotates photos from my files.  This week one appeared from the trip we took to England several years ago.  So I looked back at those files and 'relived' our trip.  I love the memories!  Bath, England.



Bonus quote of the day:  "The problem with a good book is that you want to finish the book but you don't want to finish the book."  So true!

11 comments:

Barbara H. said...

I had not heard of dinosaur kale - must be really big! How neat to observe the monarchs through their life cycle so far. We've had some wonderful rain and a bit of coolness this week, too. Our screen saver rotates photos as well - so fun to be reminded of pleasant memories. Love your book quote: so exactly right!

Karen said...

I just watched the trailer for Yarn and it looks wonderful! Also checked to see if would be coming to our area, which it did a couple of months ago. I love it when people take their passion and run with it!

I am going to try some fall veggies, too. I haven't heard of dinosaur kale, but it sounds interesting!

Glad you are enjoying your new found freedom:)

Jerralea said...

Sounds like life is good! I'm slightly envious of your free time - and your cooler weather!

You must show us a picture of dinosaur kale! I'm trying to imagine it ...

ellen b said...

Great critter shots. Who knew that there is a movie called Yarn. Cracking up about your retirement days and how to keep track of what day it is. Hope you have a good time on real Saturday and real Sunday!

Gracie Saylor said...

So glad you caught a photo of one of your beautiful Monarchs and shared it with us! I have discovered that retirement requires the same management skills as working outside my home full time...there are so many things I want to accomplish but have to make good "lesson plans" to achieve even a fraction of my goals as I celebrate life! xx

busybusybeejay said...

I am less organised now I am retired but it is great.So many things to do and time to do them,well some of them!!

Schotzy said...

I really enjoyed your FFF and reliving taht marvelous feeling I too experienced the first couple of years after I retired from teaching...now after 13 years I can hardly believe I did teach for 30 years.. I have to say Im so glad Im not teaching now!

Kathie said...

I'm so behind but congratulations on your retirement! I especially enjoy it around the end of August when I know I'm not going back to school. :)

Glad you're enjoying some cooler weather -we had a marvelous summer - beachy day after beachy day. A little short on rain so things are a bit dry - but we've had a few good showers lately.


Love your book quote.

Gattina said...

I hate garden work or yard work ! I prefer to sit in a nice yard, lol ! Here we have the snails eating up everything and about cool weather I only can complain, we didn't have a real summer this year, it was mostly cold and rainy.

Susanne said...

Oh I totally relate to that quote!! I've heard of dinosaur kale. You'll have to show some pictures and let us know how it tastes.

Deb J. in Utah said...

Retirement sounds great. I hope to be like you some day - retired! Have a great week!