This has been a week of bouncy castles, Moomin books (MrD and I are halfway through Moominsummer Madness right now!), and episodes of "Dino Dan". In other words, MrD is on half-term (a one-week school break), and writing time...has been limited. Um. To say the least ( Read more... )

Wahhh. My family visit ended today, I have a freelance deadline breathing down the back of my neck...yup, our vacation is definitely over.

But oh, what a great vacation it was! The Île de Ré, near La Rochelle in France, is an absolutely gorgeous island, hot and sunny and full of wonderful beaches, marinas, beautiful low white buildings with red- ( Read more... )

So, this weekend we went to the Lake District...and it was wonderful! I loved it the first time we went, several years ago, but I loved the area we went to this time (just outside Cockermouth, near Keswick) even more. The incredible, rumpled hills, wild and rocky and covered with scree and massive outcroppings that jut out at strange angles; the ( Read more... )

This has been a week of miserably hot & humid weather, which always inspires great angst in me, as a transplanted Michigander - I did not move all the way to England just to have this kind of weather!!!! (Just in case you've never spent a summer in Michigan, I'll tell you the way my Michigander grandfather described our state: "9 months of winter ( Read more... )

We got back home this afternoon, after one of the easiest drives ever - I kept wishing I had wood to knock on as we drove, waiting for the inevitable August Saturday traffic jam to appear somewhere...luckily, it just never happened. Undoubtedly, this was all just intended to put us off guard for our next trip, but I'm very grateful nonetheless ( Read more... )

...And we finally went to Bath! We took the train from Wales to Bath on Tuesday, and although - of course - we didn't have nearly enough time to spend there, it was a great day out. We planned to go to two different museums, the Roman Baths/Pump Room and No. 1 Royal Crescent (another Georgian townhouse), but the Baths & Pump Room ended up taking ( Read more... )

This is our third day in Wales, and it's been wonderful so far - relaxing AND surprisingly productive. My KbS revision is going really well and quickly, aided by far, far too many chocolate brownies at our favorite local coffeeshop! ;) (The funny thing is, there are "normal" brownies and vegan brownies both on offer there, and the vegan brownies ( Read more... )

We're off to Wales soon, really - no, really, this time! As usual, we started out intending to leave first thing in the morning...then, by the end of last night, we realized that wasn't realistic, so we changed our goal to a noon departure - and now it's 11:46, and we're hoping to get out by 1:30 at the latest...! But we will get out eventually, ( Read more... )

We're back from Stockholm! And it was wonderful. We'd been there once before, in October 2006, and it was fascinating to see how different the city is in summertime - dazzlingly sunny, VERY hot, beautiful, and full of tourists! I missed the quiet streets of the gray-skied Old Town in October, but oh, it was beautiful in the summertime heat and ( Read more... )

Woot! I am done, done, done with the round of revisions that has eaten my brain in the last few weeks. Hooray!

Of course, now I feel shockingly empty...because what else am I supposed to do with my life now? Well, go back to Kat by Starlight, for one thing. (Double-hooray! I've been really missing it.) And even before that, since we're leaving for ( Read more... )