Reflections on Free-Styling @60
Six months after “retiring” and three months after starting to write on Substack
So, I’ve been reflecting…
I nervously started writing on Substack on 17th July this year, after my 60th birthday celebrations with family in Ireland.
Photo author
I have called my Substack writing project Free-Styling @60 because my blessed teaching pension now enables me to focus on the things that I feel passionate about - including but not limited to wildlife & conservation; cheese-making; writing; painting and planning our move to France in late 2025 with Mr. C.
Gouache abstract painting author






Improving my health and well-being is also key to this new period of my life. This week last year, I developed sciatica with excruciating pain. I was incapacitated and even incapable of going to the bathroom on my own, unaided. I was unable to work for four weeks. I had literally just started a new veterinary nursing job at a different practice and was unfortunately unpaid for my period of sickness. I would not wish sciatica on my worst enemy and it made me determined to improve my physical fitness.
With the benefit of weekly physiotherapy at a marvellous local practice, prescribed by our wonderful NHS (don’t knock it), I am improving my flexibility and core strength. This week at Wildwood Trust Kent, I was able to squat, without difficulty, under about 15 - 20 wooden fences, as I joined the avian department, providing husbandry for owls. I could not have done this six months ago. I felt empowered - it was a real measure of how far I have come.







I am thoroughly enjoying the challenge of working with local wildlife charities. I am currently in the very early stages of liaising with some local veterinary practices and feline charities - hoping to collect domestic cat neck circumference data to enable Wildwood Trust Kent to design tracking collars for their native wildcat rewilding project.
At Wildwood Trust Kent, I was given the opportunity to assist at the European bear Boki’s recent brain surgery, to remove fluid caused by hydrocephalus. Unfortunately, this wonderful opportunity clashed with a pre-booked flight home for my mother’s 89th birthday in Dublin.
On Substack, whilst I genuinely do not know whether I am any good, I am really enjoying the writing process. It is so engrossing.
was so true, when she recently described the writing process as:To date, I have written 20 articles about a range of topics, including wildlife & conservation; France; Ireland; cheese-making; a film and photography exhibition review (Lee Miller) and a play review (Grania by Lady Augusta Gregory at the Abbey Theatre Dublin). I have a small but slowly growing number of subscribers who read my work - for which I am very grateful. And
has published two of my articles, which has been so uplifting. Thank you sincerely Judy.But……
Writing an article every week; doing a weekly full day volunteering at Wildwood Trust Kent; four one hour group physio sessions and a weekly half day Art class is keeping me very busy. In fact, as I said to my sister and Mr. C, I feel I am actually busier now than before I “retired” and was still employed by somebody else.
Last week on Monday, I found myself overwhelmed - peeling and chopping four pumpkins for a soup and making a cake for my forthcoming Halloween Substack article on the 31st October, which I hadn’t even started writing yet. I felt I wasn’t going to be able to meet my own deadlines; I was stressed and cancelled a physio group session and my volunteering session at Wildwood Kent.
Reader, I made the pumpkin soup and the Barm Brack cake and I met my Substack Halloween deadline…..but it got me thinking.
We had booked a long weekend away in France, leaving on Halloween evening. As I packed and put my book (Trespasses by Louise Kennedy) in my bag, I realised that
Image Amazon UK
the last time I had read this book, any book (excluding my weekly Sunday newspaper treat and Substack articles), was the end of August!
This is not good - at all. As
advises in her really helpful article about the writing process:The first and most obvious thing you need to do is simply practice. If possible, practice in public because you’ll get feedback faster and therefore improve faster. It took me almost two years of wanting to do this to finally start, so I know it’s hard. But it’s necessary.
The second, more overlooked thing you have to do is read. A LOT. You don’t even need to read the kind of things you want to write. Actually, if possible, you should read a wide range of genres and formats. The reason this is important is that reading helps develop taste—not taste in terms of what is good, but in terms of what you like. I think that’s much more important.
So, something has to give. I need to read more to become a better a writer. Currently, my focus is on my free-styling period - the things I am participating in now and that I feel passionate about. But in the medium to longer term, I feel the pull to write a memoir. But to get there, to do that, I need to practise my writing; I need to read more and I will probably need some training/mentorship/workshops.
wrote a great article This is Your Life on Memoir writing on her super Substack :In a comment thread, which I now cannot find, Wendy advised me that it is important to ask yourself the question “Is this your story to tell?” Definitely food for thought. Thank you for the advice
.In the meantime, I have made a decision to write an article on Substack every two week - on the second and last weekend of every month. If I am able to write more frequently, then I will. I feel this compromise, this fine-tuning if you will, will enable me to read more; practise writing; continue my wildlife and conservation work and continue to improve my physical health and well-being.
Thank You for reading Free-Styling @60.
Clicking the heart, sharing and/or commenting below all help other people find my work.
If you have enjoyed my writing and aren’t already a subscriber, please do sign up here - it’s free.
hello Caroline
Thank you for your very kind words.
Here is a suggestion that may help 'lift the weight'. I find that the pressure comes from self imposed deadlines and the creativity comes when this weight is lifted...
So, for example, you could commit to writing a post here each month.
Then when inspired you could write additional occasional posts (without the pressure)
Then spend a little time writing NOTES on Substack. Short pieces can be excellent practice. Its actually harder to write good short pieces than it is to write long pieces .
Anyway... be kind to yourself, you're doing very well.
Warm regards
Judy
Great post and I think it's so good to calibrate your writing rhythm to suit your needs. It's more important to have the time to create something true and good than to just churn out content on a calendar. Brava and bienvenue en France (if you're still here) !