Happy Autumn!

Welcome to my favorite times of the year! I hope all are well and enjoying the turning of the earth around the sun, passing through one of its dramatic moments of change.

Over here, in our corner of the world, the weather took a turn right about the same time as the equinox arrived. Early in September we had a last heat wave which exhausted us. All of a sudden there is a nip in the air and enough rain to begin to turn the lawn green again.

We have some friends in California who told us about a book called Breakfast in Burgundy, written by an Irish wine expert named Raymond Blake. They were reading and enjoying it and recommended it to us. Of course since it's about our own region, we were interested. I bought the kindle version and have begun to dip into it. However the impact it really had on me this week was achieved when I watched a Youtube interview with the author. When asked what advice he would give to aspiring writers, he said that he gets up early every morning, splashes some water on his face, sits down and begins to write, not letting emails, internet research or anything else distract him.

This is no huge revelation, and I've certainly heard that before, but this week it seems to have landed. I've been able to get myself out of bed most days at 6am and sit in front of the computer to finally begin writing "the book." Ever since moving to France, with every adventure or quirky tale, we say "that will go in the book." But that's as far as it got, even though it was always in the back of my mind. This week I began in ernest. I have been quite absorbed and find that I have quite a lot to say. I have spent both early mornings and other times of day getting some of my thoughts down. I found some old journals and photo albums, rich with memories. I've managed to write almost 10,000 words or about twenty pages so far. It's a pretty good start.

All this to explain that my blog posting has fallen by the wayside this week!