Today it is exactly 40 years since I started my first job. Indeed it was my only job as things turned out. Little did I know on that November morning that I was starting a life path that would last 36 years, find me a husband and lots of good friends.

Strangely enough I can remember it like it was yesterday. The weather was cold and grey with a milky winter sun trying it’s best to shine through the clouds. Typical for a winters day in West Yorkshire. I was 16 years old, very scared, very naive and very shy.

I walked to the offices of the Department of Health and Social Security, as it was called in those days. I really had no idea what I was letting myself in for. My upbringing, to that point, had been very protected and very quiet, I had no idea such a place even existed.

If someone had told me then that 40 years down the line I would be married and  living in a detached house in the beautiful Lincolnshire countryside, sitting at a computer writing about my life on a gardening blog, I’d probably have run a mile. Let’s face it my first question would probably have been, “What’s a blog?”

How times have changed. When I was younger I used to think my grandparents had seen the biggest changes in the world around them. Air travel, space travel, TV, cinema, household appliances and the like. Now I’m not so sure.

In the last 40 years everything about daily life has changed or improved: communication, mobile phones, computers, media, cars, finance and every kind of gadget you can imagine, plus a few you can’t.

I think for the most part they have been changes for the better. I just wonder if I’m lucky enough to still be around in another 40 years, what I’ll be blogging about then!!