Retreat Complete

Retreats are usually organized in groups as far as I am aware. I have done a few in my time especially after I was first widowed  years ago and needed some way of getting back on track.
The charming part of entering the strangeness of old age, is the ability to create a retreat for yourself in the fashion you prefer. Read books that speak to you deeply and profoundly and truthfully. Bless all authors who manifest their thoughts and experiences on beautiful paper!!
I found Thomas Moore, James Hillman and John O'Donohue very thought provoking and enlightening.

 One of the things one does in retreats is to sacrifice something so I thought I would refuse all invitations to parties and dinners. This was not hard to do. There weren't any.....
Did a lot of gardening and as you can see above, harvested our walnuts which are now sitting in bags in the pantry, planted rhubarb clumps out , put strawberries in the old wheelbarrow and will start planting out the roses soon. The chives need dividing too and have put snapdragons and dianthus in the front garden. Now the chooks have been kept locked away till the plants can withstand their scratching.
We have had some very welcome rain and everything is greening up, the Willunga hills have put on their winter garments.

 Today was our wedding anniversary so we went to Victor Harbor and the Whalers Inn, for lunch.The weather was lovely and the scenery just gorgeous looking out over Encounter Bay. The Norfolk pines are not one of my favorite trees, but as part of the scenery they look great. They seem to have constructed a breakwater in the bay since we were there last and there were a lot of youngsters fishing off it.We didn't see anything caught but they were having fun and at least not sitting with their gameboys or mobile phones.

 The other thing I did was take a lot of photos at sunrise and our track in looks so interesting in the morning light. We are clearing a lot of bark and leaf litter along the track as we got permission to burn quite early this year so are taking advantage before everything will be too wet to burn.
We haven't seen the Tawney Frogmouths of late and I regret to say that the hysterical Noisy Miners seem to be taking up residence here and may push out the smaller honey eaters.

When I do my" Salute to the Sun" in the morning in the Studio, there is this beautiful view of the neighbours vines which are now changing colour but I cannot seem to capture quite the intensity of the gold and the silver trunk of the Lemon scented gum with the camera. Still, it gives some idea of how it looks.
The nerrines too have been flowering and adding that extra touch of red through the whole garden.
I love the Autumn!!