Taking a brief blogging pause for the following reasons:
1. Getting kids through the last week of term (fests, fests, fests and church services – am going to church twice in one day next week, which surely has me in with God). On the note of school holidays, this article on how to survive the summer holidays from the Guardian cracked me up. I particularly love #5.
2. Going great guns with the novel – am in a battle with Chapter 6 which I’m determined to win.
3. Some recession chic camping (so NOT glamping) coming up this weekend in France.
4. Some dastardly addictive reading (Wives and Daughters, A Room of One’s Own) and DVD watching (the BBC production of North and South, the new Brideshead Revisited).
See you on the other side, with a report on the camping.
Love,
The Distracted One
PS If you’d like something a little chunkier to read, here’s my husband’s post on putting business into art, and art into business.
Charlotte's Web 
July 21, 2009 at 7:11 am
My blogging has had a brief pause due to our mid year school holidays! This morning I sit, drinking my morning java shot, in peaceful bliss! Have a fabulous holiday in France!
July 21, 2009 at 11:04 am
Good luck with Chapter 6 and end of term. We went back to school today after our winter break – no glamping or otherwise camping for us but we did take them to the beach and to the cinema to see Ice Age3. Have a lovely time in France!
July 21, 2009 at 6:05 pm
Happy distractions! Glad to hear your writing is going well!
July 22, 2009 at 2:58 am
Okay. I’ll stop worrying about you. What is glamping? I know what I think camping is. It involves packs, tents, sleeping bags, dehydrated food and walking to the place where housekeeping is being set up while carrying all of the above. As far as I am concerned, when one of my clients claimed they “went camping” when what the did was spend the weekend living in their 39 foot trailer house by the lake, that had no semblance of real association with the word “camp”. Whatever it is you are doing, I hope you have fun.
July 22, 2009 at 5:01 am
Ms HMM, I’m much softer than you! Camping for me involves going to a field in the middle of nowhere, where there are toilets, and sleeping in a hired caravan. At most, we’ll put up a tent for the children to sleep in.
July 23, 2009 at 9:33 pm
I’m a lot softer than I used to be. Nowadays I really feel like I need an air mattress, I can’t just sleep on the ground any more. If I do, I wake up feeling at least 20 years older than I did when I lay down.
July 22, 2009 at 6:09 am
this all sounds so wonderful! I’m glad to hear you’re getting chapter 6 into a headlock, and man! that god thing is very impressive. Have a fabulous holiday!!
July 22, 2009 at 9:08 am
Have a fab time. Love that article, by the way. I don’t have kids but my friends that do totally over-stimulate them with endless exhausting pursuits and then wonder why they are spoiled and unmanageable!
July 22, 2009 at 4:40 pm
Have fun! We have tremendous ambitions to go glamping and always get as far as planning in great detail the extra furniture packages, whether we have a teepee or a yurt and so on. Then we reach the price and remember that it’s approximately five times what we can afford…
July 23, 2009 at 7:20 pm
Safe travels! It’s hard to keep up with a blog year after year after year…but I think the periods of time when it’s quieter always lead to even more interesting and engaging work – at least, that’s what I’ve noticed.
July 23, 2009 at 9:32 pm
I have given you an award over at my place, Charlotte.
By the way, I have sort of lightened up with people about camping: I realize that if you leave your home and go stay somewhere that is not a hotel, it is probably closer to camping than a lot of people ever do!
April 16, 2010 at 2:48 am
What an affecting take on this subject. I am happy you shared your ideas and I find myself agreeing. I appreciate your coherent writing and the effort you have spent on this article. Thanks for the good work and good luck with your site, I greatly look forward to future updates.