Retirement: Hoisting the Mainsails

Hmmm, what better way to launch myretirement boat than to admire the first breath of spring?

I am now two weeks into retirement. Youprobably want to ask: Do you miss work? My answer: An emphatic no. Notat all. Not one bit. I do miss the people I worked with but two plus years ofworking from home eased that transition.

Mother Nature has smiled on me this weekwith a stretch of early April summer-like weather. A reward, it would seem, forhanging in and crossing the finish line. I have seized on the opportunity toget an early start on my retirement nature ramblings.

You may not associate butterflies withearly April. But there are a few that spend the winter in adult form burrowedunder the leaf litter in a state of diapause – a period of suspendeddevelopment in response to adverse conditions. They emerge on the first warmdays getting a head start on the season.

If you are a betting person, you cansafely place your money on Mourning Cloaks being the first butterfly ofthe season. I have always thought that they are poorly named. There is nothingmournful about their rich brown cloak with the blue spot-band and corn yellowedges.

Right on the heels of the appearance of MourningCloaks come Compton Tortoiseshells. They are easy to overlook whentheir wings are closed displaying the dead leaf pattern of the outer wing. Butwhen they spread their wings to showcase the tortoiseshell pattern of brown,black and yellow, you cannot help but take notice of them and their burst ofcolour.

The first wildflowers pushing up throughthe blanket of last autumn’s fallen leaves are a reliable harbinger of spring.I am not a wildflower expert so I do not know the name of this blue beauty. Butthat does not stop me from stopping to admire and be inspired by it.

I have heard it said that embracingretirement is akin to setting the mainsails on your new boat. These snapshotsof spring are helping me to hoist the sales and launch into my days of leisure.

~ Now Available Online from Amazon,Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble: Hunting Muskie, Rites of Passage –Stories by Michael Robert Dyet

~ Michael Robert Dyet is also the author of Untilthe Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel which was a double winner inthe Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com .

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