Almost spring and time to retire? Almost (4-4)
I believe the answer is:
well-nigh
'almost' is the definition.
('well-nigh' can be a synonym of 'almost')
'spring and time to retire? almost' is the subsidiary indication.
'spring' becomes 'well' (I've seen this before).
'and' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'time to retire?' becomes 'night'.
'almost' means to remove the last letter.
'night' with its last letter removed is 'nigh'.
'well'+'nigh'='wellnigh'
(Other definitions for well-nigh that I've seen before include "Healthy plus near = almost" , "Amost, very nearly" .)