Spring Clean-up

When I was really young, winter was my favourite time of the year, summed up in two words: Christmas and Birthday.  Now, I love winter until about January 15th (coincidentally, the day after my birthday!), then I am ready for Spring!

As I got older, summer became my favourite time of the year.  Summer meant no school, swimming and biking every day, reading to my heart's content, vacations to see relatives on my Dad's side.



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As a young adult, I was all about Fall.  Fall clothing, new subjects at school, the leaves changing to glorious shades of crimson, amber and vibrant flame (in J Crew-ese!). 

 

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 But in the last few years, it has been Spring that has held my fancy.  There is something about Spring: the days are getting longer every single day, there is an air of optimism about it, an air of complete possibility.  In Spring, you feel reborn and revitalized; you begin planning your garden, your vacation, your future.  You take off the heavy clothing and boots of winter and replace them with light shoes or sandals, sweaters or windbreakers.  There is a feeling of shedding in Spring that cannot be denied.

Having been holed up in my house since Christmas, getting my strength back and making some decisions designed to create a lighter and happier professional and personal life, I feel a bit like the birds that are gathering every day under my bird feeder: enthusiastic and hopping this way and that!  I feel like Dorothy, stepping out of a black and white house into a kodachrome world. 

As Spring progresses, I am in full-on spring clean-up mode.  This is manifesting itself in various ways:

• Career transition.  I am still extricating myself from my old job.  Who knew how much work it is to retire from a position?  After much administrative to-ing and fro-ing, my official retirement date is May 30th.  Between now and then there are various "dos" being held in celebration of the blessed event; while this is nice, it is also a bit disconcerting and may be a bit emotional.  Ah well, we get through it all, don't we?  In the interim, I am writing like mad; I have not only started one book, I have dug out a book I wrote 25 years ago and am revising it.  This is hard, but rewarding, work and I am enjoying it and consoling myself that Julia Child did not "make it" until her fifties!  Interestingly, I have already had two or three individuals approach me as to my interest in work.  Right now, I have decided to make no commitments except to the process of transition though I believe by late Summer I will be itching to do some things!

• Garden transition.  Yesterday, I spent 5 hours in my yard.  You can hardly tell!  However, remember my poor old Potager last week?  Things are looking much better now!

Here it is this morning, all cleaned up!




My little table and chairs are waiting for warmer temperatures and pinot grigio

 And my grape arbour has been pruned into happy submission...

And we started putting out some of our outdoor furniture.  There are two Adirondack chairs waiting for a couple of you to drop by!

Since I have more time this Spring, I am really going to dig in, move things around, make it even lovelier.  I expected to be sore this morning after all of the raking and pruning, but no, a nice cup of tea and a hot bath with epsom salts cures all evils!  I am mindful that next Spring I will likely be busier than I am now, since I do expect to work again.  So this Spring is especially sweet and enjoyable to me!

• House transition.  You know we are doing some renos.  But we also continue to clear things out.  One of the things on our to-do list is to clear out our crawl space, the repository of everything  that has no place.  You thought the Sea Monkeys were scary?  Let me take you into the crawl space!  Well a LOT of it is coming out and will be sold in a yard sale in later May.  Barry hates having a yard sale.  I kind of love it in a twisted way.  All those strangers pawing through your old stuff and bargaining with you.  I find it fun, so long as I am drinking a nice big cup of coffee!  Do not worry, when we do it, you will be part of it!  Lots of pictures there!  We continue to do deep spring cleaning.  In the next two weeks, every window will be cleaned.  The Gazebo outside is going to get a nice cedar single roof.  Things need to be painted - benches, fences, the gazebo.  My daughter had three weeks off before her summer job starts.  I envision her holding a paintbrush...

• Wardrobe transition.  I am still working on this one.  The two dresses I purchased recently should be back from the tailors this week and I will definitely model them for you!  I have passed on some of my dressy suits that don't fit well; the others will be left in a back closet.  I will always need some version of these staples, but I will not need so many.  In the interim, I continue to slowly build my casual wardrobe.  I find it useful to have a model for this new wardrobe so I don't make mistakes.  I hate to be so stereotypical but I have been using some pictures by Ines de la Fressange as inspiration:

 

What I like about these looks is that they are casual, but also very chic; if you ran in to someone with whom you might want to do some business, you would not be embarassed at all, nor would you look like a Schlep Rock.    And I have decided that you will almost NEVER see me in heels this summer.  Unless there is an event or a fancy dinner.  Nope, I want flats and flat boots in the fall. 

And for a slighty dressier variation, Shopping with M's polyvore (I know, I know, I am gushing over this, but it really is perfection!)

 

And speaking of skirts, I am pretty sure I am going to order this one from Talbots, which is only sale this week for $55 CDN!

This good sale is on till May 6th, so I will likely hold off on the ordering until I see what J Crew and Madewell come up with in their new releases this week.

I kept none of the clothes that I shared with you yesterday.  Because, except for maybe the shoes, they are not the look I am going for.  And after wearing the shoes for half and hour in the house, I realized that they are uncomfortable.  I am glad I brought them home to try in order to be sure and as always, I appreciate your feedback.  I am quite keen on these sandals from Jack Rogers, but they are crazy-expensive to ship here to Canada, so am unsure.  Plus, I need to bring out all my summer shoes this week to see what my gaps really are.

• Well-being transition.  I am working very hard at getting my health back on track.  I have now lost 7 pounds, and am not dieting.  I am just being mindful of what I eat and those things that I love but which are less healthy are eaten, but in small portions.  I am only drinking wine on Friday and Saturday evening.  I am eating a lot vegetables these days and lunch every day is a smoothie of my own design: 1 cup spinach, blueberries, strawberries, a banana, 2 tablespoons vanilla yogurt and a tablespoon of OJ.  Mix it up and drink.  My daughter thinks it looks disgusting, but I like the specks of spinach.  I am walking every day and doing yoga 3 to 4 times a week and still meditating daily.  And now of course, there is all the garden work, which at this point in the season, really makes my heart pound!!!  It took me 3 years to get gain 20 pounds and to not keep up with my healthy habits, so I don't expect that I will get there for a few months yet, but I do feel that I am on the way.  Here is my only secret about this: Kindness.  I am being really kind to myself about everything I am doing and not berating myself in any way.  Stuff has happened.  That is life.  Good stuff is happening now and will continue to happen.  I am trying to look at my body differently and not beat myself up when things are tight.  They are simply packed away for another day.  If it doesn't fit perfectly, it is not in my closet right now. 

So as you can see, I am doing quite a lot of spring cleaning!  Thanks for continuing to go on this journey with me!  It is more fun doing it with friends!

Have a happy Monday and stay safe out there!