Writing inspirations and aspirations

I'm just back from a lovely break in Scotland. With visiting new places and catching up with family and friends, there wasn't much free time to write, but a holiday is supposed to be a break from the norm isn't it?

Before I left I'd been busy making some autumn plans for our writing community. This involved a quick visit (at last!) to the Seamus Heaney centre at Queen's University in Belfast. In the short time I was there, I was impressed and I'm looking forward to getting back again soon. The inspirational quotes could only encourage writers to keep going when facing writer's block.

While on my travels in Scotland, I came across a beautiful shop front that made me stop in my tracks and stare. Unfortunately the shop wasn't open the day I was there. Had it been, I would have been so excited to go in and explore. It looked like a place where magic words and stories are created and the sort of place I could only dream of writing in.

So in the absence of such an author's den and now that summer is over, I'll just have to put on my coat and go to where I like to write - in my garden.

Stretching out summer

We've been squeezing out the last few drops of summer sunshine, enjoying a spell of good weather over the weekend. The gorgeous sunny morning yesterday coincided with a trip back to Coney.

It almost felt like we were back at our writing retreat, as we caught up on news, shared some of our work as we ate blueberry muffins and coffee. We then did some writing exercises with fun prompts with the sun warming our backs. 

Later, back at home I took time to enjoy the sunshine in the garden while continuing to work on some pieces I'd developed at Coney in the morning.

But I was soon distracted, tempted by the offer of an ice-cream at the nearby seafront  with my nieces. We wanted to stretch yet more out of the day, just like the pollinators back in the garden.