One Wedding, Three Houses and No Funerals

How are you all? Hope your summer was wonderful and you're settling back into work and school. After spending the summer in the UK, (the first time in a couple of years we haven't been going back for a funeral, mercifully ...), I've been boondoggling on Facebook sighing longingly today over friends photographs of baskets full of plump blackberries, and images of log fires. It doesn't matter it's like a sauna outdoors, in my heart it is all new pencil cases, black opaque stockings and hearty soups by the fire.

Glossing over the weeks of skips, packing boxes and several removal companies, the summer was all about this:

Strawberry picking ...

greedy goats ...

a glorious wedding in Laurie Lee country with THE best pompoms ever ...

my son (who has been dying to go fishing for AGES - we live in a desert)

catching his first fish at Jimmy's Farm ...

Waking to this ...

and this ...

Working at a desk with a view ... and reading for pleasure. Highly recommend: Jess Walter's 'Beautiful Ruins', and 'Stoner' - my books of the summer.

And then taking our daughter, who has adored Harry Potter for years,

to the magical studios.

Now, we are back in the desert and it is more:

 

Hm. The return to school and work has been dubbed 'Carmageddon' by the local press, ten minute trips are taking an hour, the city is gridlocked and it's still 48 degrees at lunchtime. *Stiffens upper lip*. The world news reports also have more than an academic interest when you see your 'home' country smack in the middle of every map. But, it is home for now, and as an expat the only way is to make the best of it, and as the gals said frequently in 'The Beauty Chorus': carry on regardless.

I'm really excited to be heading to Oslo for a few days this week, to launch Parfymehagen - hopefully there will be lots of wonderful images to share with you next week. In the meantime, do check out this great anthology 'Stories for Homes' which is in aid of Shelter - the British charity which does such great work with the homeless. I was delighted to support the book with a short story, and it's a great collection, 5*s on Amazon, Kindle with paperback to come.

So, how was your summer? Love to hear your news, and updates on what you've been writing. Email as usual - and you know where the comments box is x