Active Ageing Week 4 - 8 October

Annie Reid was terrified of the prospect of retirement as she had no hobbies. “I put a spurt on and joined a Bonsai Club,” she says. After two years with a regular hobby she retired in 2014 at the age of 64. Having been a teacher for more than 40 years she soon missed it and after only a year she returned to short term contracts and relief teaching.

“I am not good at being bored,” she says. “I had been selling some of my art at Pepper Street and I liked the feel of the place.” So she signed up as a volunteer and spends 3 days each fortnight working in the coffee shop and gift shop. “After a career of teaching adolescents it was nice to have adult conversation,” she jokes.

She ‘officially’ retired at the end of 2020 at the age of 71 but keeps very active both physically and mentally. “I have done more reading in retirement than in my life,” she says. “I read more than 40 books in a year, fiction and non-fiction.” She also walks a lot to keep fit.

But it was her love of Japan that brought about her art passion. “We had visited Japan several times and I had seen the Temari, exquisitely embroidered material balls. Temari balls are a folk art form and Japanese craft, originating in China and introduced to Japan around the 7th century A.D. ‘Temari’ means ‘hand ball’ in Japanese. “The balls were used for play by young girls and then the mothers started embroidering them and they became an art form,” Annie says. Annie learnt how to make them and now displays and sells them at Pepper Street.