I have lived in the Emsworth bungalow since 2004. It has two bedrooms, a garden I can manage in sections and more cupboard space than one person needs. I still know what is in most of it.
This morning I watered the pots at the back and worked along one side of the path. I stopped after twenty minutes because my knees hurt. That is how I garden now. I do part of it, go indoors and return another day.
There were three family messages waiting. Claire wanted to know whether I was free next Sunday. Michael had sent a photograph of Poppy holding a certificate without saying what it was for. Poppy had added six clapping hands and a picture of a dog, which did not help.
Retirement has given me more say over my week, but the family still uses parts of it. I collect Poppy on Tuesdays. I see Claire and her family most weekends. Michael comes here or asks me over several times each month. I meet Pauline for lunch twice a month.
Pauline and I still discuss school offices. The difference is that neither of us has to return afterwards and deal with whatever has happened while we were out.
Once a month I go to the local history group. I joined for the talks and stayed because people bring records, compare dates and disagree over street names. I know where I am with that.
I read crime novels and biographies. I drive locally, though I no longer volunteer for unfamiliar motorway journeys. I have nothing to prove to a roundabout in another county.
I work on the Life Archive two or three times a week. Some entries begin with a certificate or photograph. Others begin with a sentence somebody repeated often enough for it to become part of the family account. I check names and dates when I can. The family does not always agree.
There are public entries, private entries and unfinished Notes. I have not written every argument or included every illness. Some memories belong partly to other people, and they are allowed a say.
Today I reviewed the Note about the blue coat and left it undated. I corrected a Weymouth caption and added a missing name to another photograph. Michael later explained that Poppy’s certificate was for reading fifty books.
After lunch I went back outside and finished the pots by the fence.