Holidays, summer and radio silence

Suffice to say - I have been busy!
Work was extremely busy - living and working in a tourist area means you make the holiday for other people; you help them on their way to relaxation and fun.

The time came around for my own holiday, and for two short weeks I was busy luxuriating in central France, reading the uproariously funny How To Build A Girl by Caitlin Moran and feasting on bread and local wine.

We did all the normal things on holiday. We packed too much, yet somehow too little, we wore the same shoes in the woods, on the beach and in the lake. The 'beaches' actually belong to lakes, being as the central area we visited is very much the Midlands of France, in that is it totally land-locked on all sides. The plages we visit most frequently are in Indre or Creuse departments, and are woodsy, muddy and utterly charming. Speed boats fling screaming teenagers around on inflatables out on the open water, the occasional tourists brave the waves in kayaks and pale, hesitant girls (me) take an age to get into the very cool lake water. We visited chateaux, walked miles in cool shade and blistering heat all in the name of fitness, saw a dust devil on the hottest day and visited some wolves on the coolest.

We did some less common things on holiday, too. Like deciding to change our lives for the better. We agreed to read more, love more, talk more, and feel better. We also accidentally killed a hornet, which we felt pretty bad about. I always get chased by nature, and some notable and fairly comedic special guests this year included bats, wasps, massive flying beetles, beautiful dragonflies, a goat that sounded like a person, and many others.

Changing your life doesn't happen overnight, or even on one beautiful afternoon at Anzeme, watching a clear blue sky unfold above you as you accidentally crash into a French man while doing backstroke. Changing your life happens in a sequence of tiny steps, sometimes each one smaller than the last, but always moving forward.