It was a week filled with poetry and prose, interesting conversations with like-minded people, and the kind of atmosphere that is so conducive to being creative. The setting consisted of everything I love most: creaking verandas overgrown with wild lavender and jasmine; secluded gardens with comfy cushions under rattling aspen trees; a wild mountain stream with a deep pool in which we could swim and paddle; tangled woods; forest-clad mountains; donkeys and chickens and nightjars and thrumming bees - and even a small grass snake. It reminded me of my old paradise, Cobb Valley (A Piece of Heaven), with its sun-baked earth and wild unravelling edges, and the ever-present rumble of the distant waterfall.
It also evoked my early childhood, swinging in hammocks under bendy-limbed mulberry trees and picking grapes from the vine-twisted pergolas. There was even a small harp for me to play...
And yes, to
answer your unspoken question, I did eventually write something. I started my new collection of short stories
with three ideas and completed a first draft for one of them. Which was particularly challenging in a
heatwave. I exchanged book titles with
my fellow writers, bought a book of poems, learned the names for all kinds of
wild flowers, trees and birds, as well as the hummingbird hawkmoth and the holm oak tree (a corruption of the word 'holly' where the evergreen leaves are slightly holly-shaped) and listened to the inspiring memoirs
of those who had written for years and those who had never written before. At times this was a knock to my confidence as a
writer relatively new to sharing my work; everyone else's work always sounds better than your own. I was reminded how much I have yet to learn,
and that is no bad thing.
It made me realise how important it is to take time out for yourself, if you can. Of course, it doesn't have to be in another country, although the sunshine certainly helps. A single week can put a much-needed spark back in your plugs.
It made me realise how important it is to take time out for yourself, if you can. Of course, it doesn't have to be in another country, although the sunshine certainly helps. A single week can put a much-needed spark back in your plugs.
I'm not saying
exactly where it was.
I'm keeping it
a secret.
I'm a bit worried there will be a rush on the place and no room left for me to return. But if you are really desperate to know, I may
take pity on you...
(No promises,
though.)
2 comments :
I am so pleased that you made this trip! It sounds a fantastic place, in all the meanings of the word!
Thanks Caroline. I suspect it was also your sort of place.
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