Where Has The Summer Gone?

Hi Everyone,

It feels like the 4th of July, which kicked off the summer, was only 5 minutes ago, and the summer has raced by. And I’ve been busy. As always, I feel like my supposed to be lazy summer was action packed.

Let’s see, what have I done? I came back to France in June, saw lots of friends, and spent two weeks with my children in July, a week of it in the South of France. For the first time in many, many years, we did not spend time on a boat, but relaxed at a hotel we have gone to every year since their childhood. And we had fun together. We’re incredibly lazy when we go on vacation together. We lay in the sun, ate too much, went out for dinner once, and the rest of the time, ate at the hotel. No one went fishing, they all swam every day. The weather was hot, which makes us all lazy. And we had lunch and dinner together every day. And for 5 days of it, there was a Mistral wind, which is a gale force wind, in spite of sunny weather. We laughed a lot, most of us went to bed early, and I lay in the sun in the daytime for many hours (despite my children’s warnings that if I keep doing that, I will one day look like a prune. But I always feel better with a tan).

Other than that, I’ve seen lots of friends this summer, for lunch and dinner. I gave a small cocktail party, and a dinner party (in Paris) for the 4th of July. I haven’t been to any art exhibits, and my favorite auction house in Paris is always closed for three months over the summer. I really miss it when it’s closed.  It will be the end of September when it opens again. I read a book, when I was on vacation with the kids—the only time I read other people’s work is when I’m not writing,—-and it was really fun to read someone else for a change!!!  I visited my favorite church in the South of France, an eleventh century church, with a fourth century chapel, high on a hill, with an incredible view of the Southern coast of France. And I took my new puppy with me to the south this year. It was fun having her along.

Since the kids left, I have done some editing on a book that will be out next year. I’m working on a children’s book—and writing children’s books is harder than you’d imagine. I’m still working on writing lyrics for songs, with 4 composers in Paris. I’ve been doing it for a year, and we’re hoping to get our songs on the Internet, by the end of the year. It has been a fun project, and also a lot of work. We’ve written and composed about 25 songs in the last year.  I’ve made some collages, which I always enjoy doing, and is an artistic outlet for me—-I love anything with words!!!

And this year, exceptionally, I am lucky enough to spend two more weeks with my kids. One of my daughters is getting married, so we’ll all be together, and it will be busy and exciting, with relatives and friends flying in from Europe and all over the place. We haven’t had a wedding in the family for a few years (five or six years, I think), so it’s been a big, exciting event for us, with lots of details for me to take care of and things to plan. So I guess, this has been a pretty busy summer after all!!! And with the wedding, even busier before it’s over.

I hope that your summer has gone well, and that you found time to relax, to go to the beach or the country, or someplace that you love—I hope you found time to read, or fish, or spend time with family or friends, doing whatever you enjoy. It’s nice to recharge your batteries sometimes. Sometimes I wish we could put these summer days on ‘pause’ and enjoy them for longer. I hate to see the summer fly by, but it always does…..and before summer ends (all too soon!!) I really hope you’ve enjoyed yours!!!

Love, Danielle