The first ‘get ready for Christmas’ email has just popped into my inbox. It’s a bit like the first swallow of spring but less fun and I don’t know about you but I’m not ready to give up on summer and autumn yet. Not by a long way because if you do the method of counting summer as beginning on the midsummer solstice then it hasn’t begun yet.
I tend to go for the meteorological version, which means summer is June, July and August, autumn is September, October and November and so on through the year. In which case it’s just coming into its glory and the weather down here in Dorset is my favourite sort of weather. Nice to sit outside in the sunshine with a long-sleeved T-shirt
and perhaps a cardigan but not so hot that moving becomes a massive ask and the idea of working is pretty much a forlorn hope.
One of my goals for this year was to live a gloriously small life and accept that busy places are out of the question for me for the foreseeable future because of the ongoing Covid risk. To accept that I will meet people outdoors, and thank heaven every single day that I live somewhere so beautiful. To thank heaven that I can shop online and, to be honest, to enjoy the choice and the time it frees up for walks and writing and sitting in the garden. To make the most of what I have and be incredibly grateful for it.
So yes, I will have a look at the Christmas sale, but I’m trying really hard not to plan so much. I’m reading a book called ‘Seashells in my Pocket’ by Jennifer Melville at the moment. It’s fifty ways to live a beach inspired life, and the one that’s taken my fancy at the moment is ‘Be more jellyfish and less lobster.’ In other words, go with the flow rather than constantly fighting it. That’s not being a doormat, but picking your battles…
And after all that, it seems daft to say that my current new writing project is a book of Christmas short stories from all the series I write, but my only excuse is that as a baby writer I did a lot of stories for women’s magazines and June was the month when they wanted Christmas stories. But I shall write them sitting in the garden with a cold drink with a sprig of home grown mint floating in it and ice cubes…
Have fun this week, and, if you can, try being a jellyfish and see where life takes you…
And if you look closely, you’ll see the moon jellyfish that are floating around in our park in today's picture. Amazing, aren’t they?
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