Update ahead of a Wild (and social media free) June
Hello lovely people who are kind enough to read my posts, this is me offering you a very small update on
a) what’s been going on in my world since I went on hiatus, and
b) what I’m going to be up to over the summer.
Best news first; the sale of my parent’s house completed at the end of April. Huzzah, hurrah and hooray indeed! It’s such a massive relief to have got the sale over the line and not be driving 200 miles up and down the country every few weeks. I’ve spent the past month getting them settled into mine and helping deal with the rigmarole of getting their address details changed everywhere. That is something I am not looking forward to doing again once we find a house in Northumberland and sell this one but at least I now have a full list of what will need doing and who I contact to do it.
In news that is almost as good as the house sale I now have a new GP who is the polar opposite of my last one; she listens, doesn’t dismiss everything as “stress”, didn’t mention my weight once, sent me for tests based on the issues I’ve been experiencing. The result of this approach, which shouldn’t be a rare as it is for women and disabled people, is that she agreed that I was menopausal and put me on HRT in early April. It’s made a significant difference to my quality of life already; the low grade fury and terrifying sporadic bursts of rage that took all my energy to control have gone completely, I’m no longer bleeding for 17 days at a time when I have a period, and I’m sleeping better than I have for years. I’m hoping it’ll have further benefits as I continue to take it – it can take three months for the full effects to show – and I’m intending to make a separate post about it all at some point as it’s been a wild ride and although there’s way more information out there than there was say, five years ago, there still isn’t enough to make sure anyone experiencing this has easy access and the ability to advocate for themselves in the best way possible.
Which leads neatly on to my writing in general and when I’ll be back posting on my blog in particular. To cut a long story short although I’m still writing bits and bobs in terms of posting anything … the answer is not quite yet.
As well as wanting to shake up how I’m blogging in terms of both the timings and split of fiction, non-fiction I share, I’ve made the decision that I’m not comfortable publishing on Substack any more1. As such I’ll be moving my monthly newsletter to WordPress so everything is in one place. Before I send out my final post on substack I need to move the two years worth of archive posts across so I don’t lose anything and that’s going to be quite a bit of work behind the scenes. Couple that with a terminal illness in the extended family and add the work needed to get my house ready to put on the market on top and it’s clear I’m not going to have the time or energy to be blogging in the next couple of months.
In fact I’ve decided that my energy – mental and physical – could do with a bit more protection than usual so I’m going dark for the entire month of June.
I will not be on the internet or using tech (other than reading on my kobo) in any shape or form in my down time – a full digital detox – and will also trying to limit any other internet and tech use to the bare minimum needed to get what has to be done, done. Since I’m taking myself off to a tiny holiday cottage just outside Abergavenny for a week over the midsummer solstice this is going to be easier than it otherwise would be.
One of the things I will be doing in June is participating in the Wildlife Trusts ’30 Days Wild’.Basically this initiative aims to get everyone to connect with nature every single day in June – look at the sky, listen for a bird, identify a plant, hug a tree – to just take a moment to be present with yourself and whatever is around you. I’m planning to spend at least five minutes each day writing down what I’ve seen/heard/experienced on my morning walk and also to try and at least stick my head out of the window at the end of the day too, creating a sort of nature focused bookend around my days.
So, that’s me for now, about to disappear off the internet for a month and really make the most of breaking the “I’ll just check my phone for the fiftieth time today” habit.
May the long days bring you enough time to do both what you need to do and what you want to be doing and may the summer sun energise you and light your heart with joy.
Until next time, dear readers, take care xxx
In case you missed it, as I had for a long time, Substack is the writing site equivalent of the nazi bar that taints you by association. For sources, I’m going to point anyone would like them to Imani Gandy’s Bluesky post about it: https://bsky.app/profile/angryblacklady.bsky.social/post/3lglaeeeatk2w