Make a Few Plans That Depend on the Season

The first coffee outside in spring usually requires a sweater. Sometimes you take it out too early, sit there stubbornly for ten minutes, then retreat to the kitchen. Still, it counts.

By August, you’re eating tomatoes that need little more than salt. In October, you find yourself taking the longer route home because the trees along that road are turning. A few weeks later, a pot of soup and an afternoon indoors sound perfectly reasonable.

These small pleasures help us recognize where we are in the year. We rarely plan for them, though, and they’re easy to miss when we assume there will be another opportunity next weekend.

Retirement can make that more noticeable. Work once gave the calendar a certain shape: deadlines, holidays, vacation requests, the familiar rush before a long weekend. Without those markers, you may have more freedom, yet still find yourself wondering where September went.

A few seasonal plans can help. They give you a reason to enjoy October while it’s October, before the leaves are down and you’re looking for the snow brush.

Give Each Season Something of Its Own

There’s a great deal to like about convenience. You can buy strawberries in January, watch a film whenever you fancy it and order almost anything without leaving home.

But there’s still pleasure in waiting for something to come around.

Local corn tastes especially good after you’ve spent months looking forward to it. The garden centre in May feels different from the garden centre in November. A winter afternoon spent reading beside a window has its own appeal, even if you’d never choose to spend a beautiful July afternoon that way.

You don’t have to love every season equally. February may never win you over. Even so, it helps to have a few things you enjoy about it.

Perhaps winter is when you go to afternoon films, work on a puzzle or try the recipes that take too long for summer cooking. Spring brings a favourite walking route back into use. Summer means dinner beside the water. Autumn earns a country drive and the return of an old stew recipe.

Those familiar pleasures give you something to anticipate—and something to remember when you look back.

An Autumn You Actually Took Part In

Imagine someone who likes autumn but mostly sees it through the windshield.

Every year, she says the same things: “We should go somewhere to see the colours.” “We should get apples from that orchard.” “We haven’t made beef stew in ages.”

Then a busy week turns into two. It rains on the weekend she had in mind. By the time she gets around to the drive, most of the leaves are on the ground.

Now imagine she writes down four things early in October:

• Walk a favourite trail while the leaves are turning.
• Buy apples from an orchard.
• Make the family beef stew recipe.
• Take a country drive, with time to stop wherever looks interesting.

It’s a modest list. She could do two of those things on the same afternoon.

But come November, she has memories of being out in the season: the smell of the orchard, a muddy stretch of trail, lunch at a place she found along the drive. Autumn has become more than something she watched happen outside.

That’s enough reason to make another small list when winter arrives.

Keep the List Short Enough to Enjoy

You’ve probably seen the articles promising “47 Things You Must Do This Fall.”

Forty-seven seems excessive. Some of us would like to enjoy October without being assigned homework.

Three or four plans are plenty. Choose things you already know you’d like to do, including a couple that take very little effort. A walk counts. So does buying good apples and making a crisp.

Be honest about what appeals to you. If pumpkin patches leave you cold, leave them off. If your idea of a lovely autumn afternoon involves a book, a blanket and something simmering in the kitchen, make room for that.

Leave some space around the plans, too. You’ll want to be able to move a walk to a sunny day or accept an invitation that comes along unexpectedly.

If the list starts making you feel behind, shorten it.

Bring Back a Few Annual Favourites

Some activities become special because you only do them once a year.

You may have a summer drive you always take, a December concert you look forward to or a recipe that comes out when the evenings turn cold. Perhaps you buy the first local asparagus from the same farm stand every spring.

Over time, these things gather memories. You remember who came with you, the year it poured rain, the café you discovered when you took a wrong turn.

There’s comfort in their return. You know roughly what to expect, but each year brings something a little different.

Think about the seasonal things you used to enjoy. Is there one you’ve let slip? A fall fair, perhaps, or an evening looking at Christmas lights. You may find it takes very little to bring it back.

And if an old tradition has become more trouble than pleasure, change it. A smaller gathering, a shorter drive or a simpler meal may suit your life better now.

Leave Room for the Weather to Decide

Some plans need a date. Others work better when you wait for the right moment.

If the leaves look beautiful on Wednesday and you’re free, that may be your day for the drive. There’s no particular advantage to waiting until Saturday, especially if rain is coming.

The same goes for lilacs in bloom, an unexpectedly warm April evening or the first snowfall that leaves everything clean and quiet.

One of retirement’s pleasures can be the freedom to respond. You can move lunch outside, take a walk while the light is lovely or spend an afternoon somewhere you’d usually save for the weekend.

It helps to have a few ideas ready. Keep the walking shoes handy. Know which nearby route you’d like to try. Have someone in mind who might enjoy coming along.

Then, when a good opportunity appears, getting out the door takes less persuasion.

Let Food Mark the Year

Food is probably the easiest place to start.

The first chili of autumn announces itself before you’ve even sat down to eat. Fresh corn belongs to late summer. A ripe peach is best enjoyed somewhere you don’t mind dripping.

You can make most dishes whenever you like, of course. But saving a few favourites for their season gives you something to look forward to.

Perhaps you make apple crisp after your first orchard visit, soup when the evenings turn cool or a particular holiday recipe that reminds you of someone.

The ritual can be very small. Buy strawberries when the local crop arrives. Invite a friend over for the first barbecue of spring. Make enough of your favourite winter stew to put a few portions in the freezer.

You’re going to eat dinner anyway. Occasionally, let the time of year suggest what’s on the table.

Choose One Outing That Suits the Season

Along with the familiar rituals, choose one outing you’d particularly enjoy in the next few months.

In autumn, that might be a country drive with lunch in a small town. Winter could bring a museum visit followed by an early dinner somewhere warm. Spring might mean a garden visit or a walk to see what’s starting to grow. In summer, an evening picnic beside the water may be all you need.

Keep the distance and effort reasonable. You’re more likely to go if the outing fits comfortably into your life.

It’s also worth inviting someone. A simple suggestion—“Would you like to take a drive next week if the colours are good?”—gives you both something to look forward to.

And give yourself enough time to enjoy it. The stop for coffee or the unplanned walk may turn out to be the part you remember.

• Something outside: a walk beneath the changing leaves.
• Something delicious: apple crisp, roasted squash or a favourite soup.
• Somewhere to go: an orchard, a market or a nearby town.
• Something comfortable at home: a film, a book or dinner with someone you enjoy.

Use those as starting points, not rules. Your list might look completely different.

Then choose the easiest item and give it a tentative date. Check the forecast, call a friend or put the ingredients on your shopping list—whatever small step will help it happen.

You don’t need to organize the whole month. Getting one enjoyable thing underway is a good start.

Enjoy It While It’s Here

There’s always a reason to put something off. Errands need doing, the weather could be better, and staying home is often easier.

Sometimes staying home is exactly what you want. But if you’ve been saying you’d like to see the colours, visit the orchard or take that drive, it’s worth making a little room for it now.

Retirement may give you more chances to do that than your working years did. You can take advantage of a clear afternoon, linger over lunch or go somewhere on a Tuesday simply because it looks like a good day.

Years will still move quickly. A few seasonal plans won’t change that. They can, however, leave you with more to remember than another month crossed off the calendar.

Buy the apples. Make the stew. Take the walk you keep talking about.

When November arrives, you’ll be glad you went.

What’s one thing that makes October feel unmistakably like October to you?