MOTHER, THE BAGELS, THEY ARE NOT HALFED

A summer of all the things, as usual

It’s been a while!

It’s the start of a new school year and I couldn’t welcome it more. Since April, we have been split across two school runs an hour apart; my eldest daughter at school in our new town and my youngest daughter at school in our old one, my husband and I taking one run each. She was at the end of year 6, and it seemed like the kindest thing to let her see it through. I have questioned that decision many a time, as it made life pretty hard for us and prolonged the settling in period in this new place. But, she had a cracking primary school and an ace bunch of mates; I wanted her to see it through ‘til the end, and I’m glad we did it.

That being said, seeing both girls set off for the school bus this week was a huge weight off. They were out the door by 7.50am, and this is the most amount of time I have had to write since we moved. Just half an hour before work, but it’s something.

Every year, I think that Summer holidays will be full of time to write and play, but of course they were chaotic as ever. I can see from my photos that they have been pretty amazing, full of camping, festivals and even a solo trip away to France for me. All sitting alongside the grumps, tiredness, frustration at trying to work from home, copious tedious demands for snacks (see above picture); all the things you would expect.

I did a much better job than usual of just surrendering to the chaos, but my body tells me it has been A LOT. Especially as we are in a new place, without the usual support networks of friends they can go play out with and make plans with. We have squeezed an extra year of time with our 14 and 11 year olds, who we probably won’t see for dust next year, but being the kids main source of entertainment is hard work. Cycling to the park on the prom after tea most nights has been my absolute highlight of the Summer and makes me feel very lucky.

Predictably, this has been another week of crashes and having to take things very, very slowly. For the first time in months I am looking forward to putting some time back into my weeks to write, play and pay attention.

I’m not entirely sure what to do with this Substack space. I’d like it to develop somehow and perhaps even be a place where we can get together online to share work, but I’m still mulling on that. For now, here’s a poem from my Shadow Puppets book that sums up how I feel about the Summer holidays!

I’ve been enjoying windmilling myself around and listening to my music.

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Invitation to write/play…

I wrote the poem above in response to an online poetry prompt. The idea was to write 3 poems, and whittle it down into a haiku*. Here’s the full set:

Poem #2

Poem #3- the haiku

It’s not my finest work, and I much prefer my the first of the three I wrote, but it’s a fun exercise to try if you fancy it.

*3 lines totalling 17 syllables. 5 on the first line, 7 on the second, 5 on the third.

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Things I’ve been enjoying over Summer…

• I have been a slooooow reader this Summer, and have spent my whole reading time on Iris Murdoch’s ‘The Sea, the Sea’ which I picked up in a charity shop. Very different from what I usually read but I absolutely loved it.

• Completely obsessed with Ezra Furman and this song.

• Very happy that my

  Elizabeth Gilbert
  is now on Substack and I get to read her thoughts every week.

• Love coming to a great podcast late when there are episodes to devour. Beautiful Anonymous with Chris Gethard is a wonderful thing.

What have you been enjoying?

Finally, if you have any thoughts about whether you would like a place to share work, or some manner of workshop, let me know!

Much love

Em x