A mere truffle

Back from 2 weeks in France, in beautiful Perigord, land of chestnuts, truffles and nervous geese. The weather was hot (but it was hot here, too, I know), food was fantastic, scenery even better. As someone who used to be involved with woodlands, and who has done a bit of reading into the history of our landscape, it was fascinating to be somewhere where there is just so much woodland, most of it unmanaged in recent times, and so few people. It can’t, in any way, be described as natural wilderness (there’s hardly any of that left in Europe) but it does at least give a feel of what lowland England might have been like once, before it was so thoroughly tamed and sanitised by humans.

The sheer scale of habitat is reflected in the wildlife it supports – you see it most in the insects. There are butterflies everywhere, marbled whites, huge orange fritillaries, even swallowtails. And all kinds of bees, bugs and beetles, including stag beetles that drone through the air like small helicopters. It’s wonderful but sad at the same time, because it hints at what we have lost here in England.

Still, I muddled through, helped by the swimming pool, sauna, and plenty of chilled white Bergerac. One has to soldier on.

I managed to get some work done on ‘Personal Demons’, though not as much as I would have liked (largely due to the aforementioned sauna, pool, etc). Even so, I got back into the flow of the plot, which is something I haven’t achieved for a long time, and made good progress. I just hope I can keep it up now I’m back. Unfortunately, I came straight back from holiday to jury service, which seems to involve sitting around in a waiting room then being sent home. It’s been nearly a week now and I haven’t had so much as a sniff of a trial.

I also need to finish off the text for the first of the Gorgeously Gross Guides (see below). The whole thing is coming together nicely now, and the text at least just needs a few tweaks from me. The Americans, apparently, are very keen and have been very complimentary about the project. I allow myself a little glow of smugness, though most of the success will be down to the illustrations and pop-ups.

I’ll post images from the project as soon as I get permission.