Off into the wilderness .....

I won't be blogging for the next week, or twittering and Facebook will have to get along without me.  I'm off tomorrow to the wild reaches of northern Scotland, north of Inverness for a week of retreat at Moniack Mhor, the Arvon Foundation's most northerly outpost - a location of bleak beauty and extreme weather.

The retreat is being run by Dr Sharon Blackie, editor of Earthlines Magazine and Two Ravens Press and Roselle Angwin, and it's called 'Singing Over the Bones - Women Writing from the Wild'.  I don't really know what to expect from it.  One part of me is very excited at the idea of being cut off from computers and telephones and other modern gadgetry for a week with nothing to do but write; the other is rather afraid that nothing will happen at all - that I'll arrive so exhausted I'll spend the week sleeping rather than thinking and writing.  Will I find my own inner Wild Woman? And will I like the other wild women I'm sharing a house with?

And how can I leave Italy, now that spring has arrived and the cherry tree is in full bloom and the sun is (at last) shining on my little patch of garden?

So, it's everything into the suitcase again and print outs of boarding passes and train timetables....  I've scheduled a couple of blogs for next week in my absence and will catch up with the world again on the 28th of April.  Oh, and I mustn't forget to pack a hot water bottle.