Sunday night reflection..

This year we have walnuts on some trees we planted years ago. 

This bush has never flowered before but it is starting to bloom.

I love the colour.

Apples for desserts and apples for apple jelly. Quite a few trees of them. 

I nearly threw this out- a gas water heater that used to heat water for the Church baptistry.
It is like an antique so I didn't have the heart to chuck it!

Part of our secluded backyard. It is slowly getting tidy.

Getting things tidier..
Retirement has meant that after 20 odd years of not keeping up with the gardening and maintenance around our house and acre (My wife has done most of what has been done) I am now making some headway in tidying it up. It is a nice feeling. Confession time... on Saturday the local council had a couple of big rubbish skips parked up the road and we could take rubbish there for a small charge. We sorted out quite a bit of rubbish, paid our $12 and began loading it into the skip. We saw tanalised posts and some timber thrown out in the skip! My wife said "We should take those?" "We can't do that!" - "But it is just getting thrown out! Surely they would not mind?" This was a whispered argument going on as the lady in charge watched us unloading. Shortly afterward the woman said, "I am just going down the road to collect the sign, I will be back soon." and climbed in her car and disappeared. We grabbed a length of timber out of the skip, then a couple of posts and put them in our van. I pulled on the third one madly but it was stuck under some other junk. I tried to clear it but fearful she could come back, I gave up and left it there.  My wife argued that we would have the time to retrieve it, but I did not like the thought of being caught. It is silly. They are perfectly good posts which would have just been dumped in a landfill. I thought later that maybe the woman had heard our whispered argument and disappeared on purpose? Anyway, I figured with the ones we got we had our $12 worth, and I am all for recycling.... but is it theft?  You will visit me in prison won't you? :-)   I am pleased I am slowly bringing some order out of the chaos of our place.
But it is luxury..
Our house is old, with lots of things needing done to it. But it is our house on our land and very usable. We are not rich and will have to survive on the government superannuation. We invited a guy out to our place for the evening meal. He had attended our drop-in centre and the church and his mum had died so we thought it was a good way to catch up and let him know our support. As I sat with him in the lounge, I thought of his life. He has some disability, is unemployed and lives with the bare basics in a rented room in a boarding house. I had shown him around our acre and as we sat in the lounge  I noticed him looking around at our "things".  I realised that though compared to many in our society we are not well off, compared to him - and probably most people in the world - we lived in absolute luxury.  I really should appreciate that more.
Getting old but exercising again...
I am fitting in some exercise. This week I have had a run, a bike ride, two fast walks and today a run. I am also doing a lot more physical work and enjoying the feel of aching muscles. I run with a lady twenty years younger than me.  We have run or walked regularly together for at least ten years.  Most of that time I have been as fit as her and been able to keep up or even sometimes better her.  These days she is the fit one and I puff along behind.  Perhaps I need to gracefully accept the limitations of aging.... but not just yet... I am improving!  It is still at the difficult stage, but it is nice to be running again.