Please Join Me at Retirementally Challenged – Retirement Reflections Skip to content Retirement Reflections What I Wish I Knew Before I Retired Menu Home About Me Privacy Policy Contact Me Gratitude, Guest Posts, Vancouver Island Please Join Me at Retirementally Challenged June 5, 2018 October 29, 2018 Retirement Reflections Thank you to Janis from Retirementally Challenged for inviting me to Guest Host on her site. It is an honour to be part of her first Guest Host Series. Since the weather is good and Mother Nature is in all of her glory, why not join me for a Spring Garden Tour on Vancouver Island? A pot of tea and a glass of wine are part of the tour, and are waiting for you at Janis’s! I look forward to seeing you there! Share this: Twitter Facebook Pinterest Print LinkedIn Email WhatsApp Like this: Like Loading... Related Tagged MARS Garden Tour, Retirementally Challenged, Vancouver Island Published by Retirement Reflections Prior to retirement, I lived and worked in Beijing China for fourteen years (Middle School Principal/Deputy Director at The Western Academy of Beijing). Leaving international life behind, my husband and I retired to Vancouver Island in June 2015. To document both this transition and our new adventures, ‘Retirement Reflections’ was born. I hope that you enjoy reading these reflections, and will be willing to share your own. View all posts by Retirement Reflections Post navigation Previous postWe Are The World Blogfest: Broombusters Next postAre You Getting Happier? 33 thoughts on “Please Join Me at Retirementally Challenged” Natalie says: June 5, 2018 at 7:16 am Hi Donna, Thank you for sharing your garden tour and beautiful photos. I left a comment on Janis’ site but it hasn’t appeared yet. Hopefully it’s waiting for moderation and did not disappear or go into the spam prison. Have a great week! LikeLike Reply Retirement Reflections says: June 5, 2018 at 7:26 am Hi, Natalie – Thanks so much for dropping by to Janis’s site. If you are a first time commenter there, your comment likely went into moderation. Hopefully that is the case! LikeLike Reply Jill Weatherholt says: June 5, 2018 at 7:25 am Thanks for sharing, Donna! I could live in that garden. 🙂 LikeLike Reply Retirement Reflections says: June 5, 2018 at 7:27 am Ohhh, me too! Thanks so much for visiting and commenting. Both are greatly appreciated! LikeLike Reply Antoinette Truglio Martin says: June 5, 2018 at 11:08 am Looks so inviting. Thank you. LikeLike Reply Retirement Reflections says: June 5, 2018 at 2:09 pm Hi, Antoinette – Thank you for stopping by and commenting both her and at Janis’s site. I greatly appreciate it! LikeLike Reply sizzlesue15 says: June 5, 2018 at 1:55 pm Hi Donna I would love to join you in your beautiful garden. Lovely photo of you too! I’m popping over to visit your post at Retirementally Challenged. Have a great day! LikeLike Reply Retirement Reflections says: June 5, 2018 at 2:07 pm Hi, Sue – Thanks so much for commenting here, and popping over to Janis’s site. Along with the yearly MARS Garden Tour, Milner Gardens is nearby and open all Spring, Summer and Autumn. And of course there is the famous Butchart Gardens in Victoria (where I haven’t yet been). We will definitely need to plan a a Garden Tour when you come out this way! LikeLike Reply sizzlesue15 says: June 5, 2018 at 2:17 pm Hi Donna, I can also imagine the beautiful Autumn colours that you would have. They are my favourite and I don’t see those in Brisbane as the weather is too hot. Yes, add the Garden Tour to our list 🙂 LikeLike Retirement Reflections says: June 5, 2018 at 2:20 pm Done! Now you have no excuse not to visit! 🙂 LikeLike leannelc says: June 5, 2018 at 11:39 pm Gorgeous garden Donna – popping over to read the rest now. And BTW you’re on my blog on Saturday – you’re a busy girl! LikeLike Reply Retirement Reflections says: June 6, 2018 at 8:11 am Hi, Leanne – Thank you for commenting both here and on Janis’s site. I absolutely love Guest Hosting and look forward to also guesting on your blog this Saturday. One week after that, I Guest Host on Natalie’s Blog. From June 21 – August 1, I will be taking a blogging break. Hopefully that will provide some balance, especially in these busy summer months. See you on Saturday! LikeLike Reply Joanne Sisco says: June 6, 2018 at 4:58 am I love the feature photo for this post. You look so happy and relaxed in this garden oasis and I’m in awe of that perfect grass. After I read the actual link though, I realize it’s not your perfect garden oasis. I’ve wrestled the green-eyed monster back behind locked doors and I’m prepared to like you again 😉 (can you tell that springtime and the maintenance demands of the yard do not leave me at my best? 😏) LikeLike Reply Retirement Reflections says: June 6, 2018 at 8:13 am Hi, Joanne – I couldn’t comment for a couple minutes because I was laughing too hard! Thank you for the morning chuckle….And I’m glad that you are prepared to like me again! LikeLike Reply Joanne Sisco says: June 6, 2018 at 9:25 am Yay! 😎 I hesitated for a few minutes before I hit the send button. Sometimes people don’t get my sense of humour 🙂 LikeLike Retirement Reflections says: June 8, 2018 at 8:10 pm I LOVE your sense of humour. It’s one of the many reasons that I follow your blog! LikeLike Joanne Sisco says: June 9, 2018 at 4:51 pm That’s good to know. I appreciate that 🙂 LikeLike theunretired says: June 8, 2018 at 7:56 pm HI Donna I will be spending a month on Horny Island over the summer. Drop me a line if you would like to get together. LikeLike Reply Retirement Reflections says: June 8, 2018 at 8:20 pm I would LOVE to meet up! I have just sent you some details via your blog’s ‘Contact Me’ form. I look forward to chatting together soon! LikeLike Reply Liesbet @ Roaming About says: June 11, 2018 at 10:30 am I love the summer! I bet it’s beautiful on Vancouver Island right now. I left a comment on your post at Janis’ blog. I first thought your main photo was taken in your own garden, but after reading your complete post, I now know better. 🙂 PS: If you can read this, my commenting only failed on the iPad. LikeLike Reply Retirement Reflections says: June 11, 2018 at 11:36 am Hi, Liesbet – I am sorry to hear that you had trouble commenting as well. This is another reminder to me that my love-hate relationship with self-hosting needs to come to an end. Vancouver Island is absolutely stunning right now — apparently our last seven months of rain had some purpose! 🙂 Are you and Mark still coming out this way this summer? If so, please let me know the dates so that I can work around them. I wold hate to miss you when you are here! LikeLike Reply Liesbet @ Roaming About says: June 11, 2018 at 12:07 pm Hi Donna! Not sure whether this commenting issue has to do with self-hosting or not. Mark and I seem to think it is related to iOS/Safari on my iPad. Or other people’s iPads when dealing with my blog. When commenting with my laptop all is fine. As of now, Mark and I still hope to go to BC/Vancouver/Vancouver Island in September. We don’t have exact dates, because we will be living and traveling in our van and don’t plan ahead. We hope to take our time visiting the sites we have in mind (Colorado, Yellowstone, Tetons, maybe Banff/Jasper in Canada). I’ll keep you (and Jude) updated about our progress. The fact that we don’t have set dates means that we can hang around a while until you’re back, if you decide to leave for a bit. 🙂 LikeLike Reply Retirement Reflections says: June 11, 2018 at 2:56 pm Hi, Liesbet – There are numerous commenting issues that are caused by Jetpack, so that is usually the first place that I look. For those who use Jetpack (i.e. most self-hosted WP sites), Jetpack’s first recommendation is to temporarily disable any plugins that you have installed. There are many plugins (including ‘CommentLuv’ and ‘Comment Reply Email Notification’ that Jetpack does not play nicely with. When that doesn’t work, their second recommendation often is to switch to a WP default them (like 2017) as Jetpack is also incompatible with many themes. When that doesn’t work, they recommend going into Jetpack, Settings, and hit “debug” at the bottom of the page. Can you tell that I’ve (sadly) had much experience with this? LikeLike Reply Dr Sock says: June 14, 2018 at 2:03 pm Yes, Liesbet, keep me in the loop too as your plans evolve. About the iPad – I almost always read blogs and comment from my iPad, and I often have trouble commenting too. Here are some strategies I have discovered that help with the problem: – refresh the page before commenting – if, when you press the “post comment” button, nothing happens, then go back into your comment and position the cursor within the comment text. Perhaps type a character or two to make sure it is working (which you can then delete). Then touch the “post comment” button again. – if it still doesn’t work, select and copy the comment text. Then refresh the site. Then paste the comment text into a new comment box. Jude LikeLike Reply Retirement Reflections says: June 14, 2018 at 3:10 pm Hi, Jude – Thank you for sharing these tips. They are very helpful! LikeLike Liesbet @ Roaming About says: June 15, 2018 at 7:59 am Thanks for the tips, Jude. I’ve found the refreshing helpful, when trying to “like” a page when it doesn’t work the first time. The commenting problem contains of receiving a message after writing and submitting the comment, that reads the form is unsecure. When I hit “submit” anyway as a continued option, the page spins forever and nothing happens. I don’t see a way around it. But, I always copy my comments, then send them to my inbox in an email, and attempt to comment later from my computer. I’m pretty sure this is a WordPress issue, since with Blogger this particular problem doesn’t happen. Anyway, we seem to always have to find ways around everything, and it’s getting old. Blogging and commenting used to be easy! Rarely does the issue lie with the owner of the blog. LikeLike Retirement Reflections says: June 15, 2018 at 3:51 pm Hi, Liesbet – Janis received that same error message “blah, blah blah Insecure” when trying to comment on my last two posts. She switched to commenting via WP Reader and that did the trick for her. I have written to Jetpack about this but have not yet heard back. On Jetpack’s Help Forum they state that a clash of Plugins often causes this (e.g. CommentLuv, WP Forms and other Comment Plugins don’t play nicely with the Jetpack Plugin). Another reader wrote that when this happens, he switches to a small, very basic comment and that usually does the trick for him. Not sure if any of this is helpful. LikeLike Liesbet @ Roaming About says: June 15, 2018 at 8:24 pm Janis had the same problem with my blog as well. My trick is to comment on my computer right now. Maybe it’s time to incorporate the Reader in my blogging life. 🙂 Thing is that these issues all seem temporarily and sometimes they happen, and then all is fine again. My feeling is that the problem often lies with the device or web browser of the commenter. Thanks for the extra info and explanations, Donna. LikeLike Retirement Reflections says: June 15, 2018 at 8:33 pm Thanks, Liesbet -Because of the build up these technical issues, I am currently pursuing switching away from being self-hosted. I want to spend my blogging time writing and connecting with others…not continually banging my head against the wall. I admire your calm and wise attitude. LikeLike Liesbet @ Roaming About says: June 11, 2018 at 8:26 pm Yikes! I see what you mean now. I assume all those problems occurred on laptops and tablets? I find that on my computer, everything always seems to work fine when I comment anywhere, while on my iPad, things often “act up”. Sorry to hear about all your (continued) issues. No wonder you need a break. 🙂 LikeLike Reply Retirement Reflections says: June 11, 2018 at 9:55 pm Ironically, my self-hosting difficulties have (dramatically) increased in the last year. LikeLike Reply Grammy Dee | Grammy's Grid says: June 18, 2018 at 12:05 am On my way over to read it now ♥ LikeLike Reply Retirement Reflections says: June 18, 2018 at 5:17 am Thanks, Dee – I greatly appreciate you doing this! LikeLike Reply Leave a Reply Cancel reply Enter your comment here... Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: Email (required) (Address never made public) Name (required) Website You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out / Change ) You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out / Change ) You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out / Change ) Cancel Connecting to %s Notify me of new comments via email. Notify me of new posts via email. Δ Search for: Follow Blog via Email Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Email Address: Follow Prior to retirement, I lived and worked in Beijing, China for fourteen years (Middle School Principal/Deputy Director at The Western Academy of Beijing). Leaving international life behind, my husband and I retired to Vancouver Island in June 2015. To document both this transition and our new adventures, ‘Retirement Reflections’ was born. I hope that you enjoy these reflections and will be willing to share your own. I look forward to interacting! Pages About Me Contact Me Privacy Policy Contact Friday Friendly Challenge Best Blogs and Websites for Positive Aging and Retirement 2021 Archives Archives Select Month September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 Categories Categories Select Category #peace ‘Friendly Friday Challenge’ Aging Well Blogging Books Camino Canada Family Food Friendship Grandparenthood Gratitude Grief Guest Posts Hiking Home Exchange Lifestyle Link Ups Photography Reflection Research Retirement Travel Trying New Things Uncategorized Vancouver Island Via Francigena What’s On Your Bookshelf? Also on Wordpress Other Blogs In the Spotlight (not on WP.com) Cresting the Hill Dr. Sock Writes Here Once Upon a Time Happily Ever After Positive Letters…Inspirational Stories Smart Living 365 So What? Now What? My Blogging Community Blog at WordPress.com. Change Is Hard ...but change is certain. Fashioned For Joy Seeking a way in the world that is abundant, loving and grace-filled, by Carol Ann Siciliano Beyond the Flow A Survivor's Philosophy of Life All She Wrote Life in the golden years Deb's World Midlife, fun and adventure Mabel Kwong Asian Australian. Multiculturalism priorhouse blog Photos, art - and a little bit of LIT. Marsha Ingrao - Always Write Having fun blogging with friends Next Phase In Fitness & Life Over 60 and living my best life Thistles and Kiwis A blog about life in Wellington, New Zealand New Classic Recipe - RECIPES AND STORIES Touring My Backyard Rediscovering Singapore Second Wind Leisure Perspectives Fun, Fitness & Photography Retirement Reflections What I Wish I Knew Before I Retired Happily Loco Adventures in our Floating House! The Sandy Chronicles One Day at a Time Annika Perry A writer influenced by her Swedish heritage and Yorkshire upbringing Something to Ponder About Writing - Photography - Lifestyle Equipoise Life The Balancing Act of My Life Joanne Tracey Author Travel Tales of Life Never Too Old To Explore Colourfully Invisible Book Club Mom Read this, not that! Notes From the Hinterland A blog about nature, home, community, books, writing, the environment, food, and rural life. Easin' Along Retired and Enjoying Life From the Slow Lane Darlene Foster's Blog Natalie the Explorer Taking steps to live a healthy and enriched life Retirementally Challenged Navigating through my post-work world THE WIDOW BADASS BLOG "This blog is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get." - F.G. Behind the Scenery Grateful for the present moment And Anyways... Author, Baker, Sunrise Chaser A Suffolk Lane A diary of my life in rural north Suffolk. Paint Your Landscape A Journey of Self-Discovery & Adventure Women Living Well After 50 Living Life Your Way After 50 TheUnRetired.life Rants and raves about everything Stories Served Around The Table Sit down, eat something, and join in as stories are served around the table Garden of Eden Blog psychological, life, death, the whole catastrophe Picture Retirement retired from work, not life THE SPECTACLED BEAN Tales, Thoughts + Tribulations of a Free Spirit in Suburbia Jill Weatherholt Writing Stories of Love, Faith and Happy Endings While Enjoying the Journey Roaming About A Life Less Ordinary The Glasgow Gallivanter Adventures at home and abroad Views and Mews by Coffee Kat Kate's views on life edited by four opinionated cats roughwighting Life in a flash - a weekly writing blog Snakes in the Grass A Blog of Retirement and Related Thoughts Follow Following Retirement Reflections Join 721 other followers Sign me up Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now. Retirement Reflections Customize Follow Following Sign up Log in Copy shortlink Report this content View post in Reader Manage subscriptions Collapse this bar Loading Comments... Write a Comment... Email (Required) Name (Required) Website %d bloggers like this: