I’m taking two weeks off

My plan when I bought Bluebell Wood was always to spend three nights a week there, during the warmer weather.

That hasn’t happened.

The launch of ThriveSpan, family things, a kitchen refit and just general life have meant I’ve spent far more time at home than I intended.

So I’m taking a break.

Two weeks away from writing and publishing here.

When I went to North Wales earlier in the summer, I wrote articles in advance and scheduled them while I was away. This time I haven’t.

It’s 7pm on Sunday evening as I write this, and I could probably create a reflective article for Monday morning. But that’s exactly what I don’t want to do. I don’t want something I care about to become another obligation to keep feeding.

So instead, let me be more open about my life. You already know about the process for launching ThriveSpan. Recent media coverage includes a podcast with Avivah Wittenberg-Cox, an article in The Telegraph, and I’ve written for the i Paper on grandparents and downsizing.

I’ve also had …

Kitchen Refit

The kitchen is finally looking beautiful, although getting there has been a series of delays and frustrations. Wrong parts were ordered, one replacement was going to have to come from Germany, and when I gave strong feedback they sourced a Le Mans carousel unit from the UK. But it still took three weeks for the correct one to arrive. I’m waiting until mid-September for the correct fridge/freezer door.

Then there has been the challenge of learning how to use my SMEG oven. Last Sunday we ate all the vegetables and had the chicken about an hour later. The instructions seemed very keen that I should use the oven, microwave and air fryer together. I just wanted the oven to be at 180 degrees.

Bluebell Wood

Time at my wood has been busier than restful. I recently held a Vision Quest there, which meant nine days at the wood. Everything has to be thought about in advance, including taking in enough water.

I love supporting somebody through a Vision Quest. It is deeply meaningful work. But that’s the point: I am supporting somebody else. It isn’t the same as simply being there for myself.

And this weekend there was another large job to do.

For around five years, a 30-foot parachute has hung above the main gathering area at the wood. Over time it had become brittle and torn, and on Saturday we finally replaced it. That meant 28 guy ropes to undo and retie onto posts that were surrounded by brambles, and four of us working together to get the old parachute down and the new one up.

It looks wonderful. But again, it was a day of doing.

Conversations on a Bench

There is another reason I want some time away. While I was in North Wales, I wrote the first draft of Conversations on a Bench, my next book.

It came quickly. Once I got the ideas it just flowed, but I now need some time to read it slowly. I also needed this month in between so I had some distance from my initial writing.

I want to sit with the manuscript, read it carefully and notice anything that needs to change. Then I’ll send it to three trusted first readers before it goes to an editor. If you’d like to be one of those first readers and can turn it around within a week or two, let me know.

Birthday alert

In just under three weeks, I turn 69. That feels significant too. Not because 69 is a particularly dramatic birthday, but because it begins my final year before 70.

I have been thinking about some of the things I want to do during that year. Not a bucket list. I don’t want major challenges, just some new experiences such as going to a football match and a trip to a London theatre. I don’t want that to become another list I have to complete. Whether I complete 70 things or not truly doesn’t matter, but it might prompt me to try new things.

There is a strange tendency, particularly for those of us who have spent much of our lives being productive, to turn everything into a project. We feel we can’t just rest; it needs to be productive. A fly-and-flop holiday is not for us; it needs a full plan of what to see and do.

A year before a significant birthday becomes a challenge involving 70 things. Even time in the woods can acquire a jobs list.

Perhaps sometimes the most useful thing we can do is stop. Simply because there should be spaces in a life where nothing needs to be produced.

So for the next couple of weeks, that is what I’m giving myself.

More time at Bluebell Wood.

Time to read my manuscript.

Time to sit under the new parachute without having to fix anything.

Time to read some of the books I keep buying.

Time to watch something in the evening without simultaneously wondering what I should be writing about it.

And perhaps a little time to notice what comes into the space when I stop filling it.

I’ll be back in a couple of weeks.

Take care until then.

Denise

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