📚 Bye-bye UK 📚

Hey there,

Greetings, When you receive this, I'll be touching down again in San Francisco, two months after leaving for a trip to the UK. Someone asked me how the trip had gone. It has been by far my longest visit since I left the country nearly 27 years ago, and I stayed in a cottage by myself in the countryside for the first time.

My answer to the question was that the trip had been “a series of adventures punctuated by moments of rest.”

From snow, fires, and unreliable buses, to meeting up with old friends, uncovering hidden treasures in cupboards, and wandering down many a memory lane, it truly has been a series of adventures.

I've enjoyed myself immensely even while I've missed my American family. I got to spend time with my son in Paris and there was technology to help us keep in touch when distance otherwise separated us.

I got some writing in. The new Roxy is nearly ready. And I revisited places that inspired many of the iconic settings in the Annabelle series, documenting them in a series of newsletters. If you missed any, you can find them all here.

I will be back in the UK soon, quite soon, in fact. I still have much to catch up on there. And this time, my family will be joining me, so that will be fun.

All I have left to do now before I settle myself back behind my desk is show you a last picture from the village: the road out. When I arrived it was winter, the daffodils weren't out, and the snowdrops just beginning. And now it is spring. There are daffodils everywhere.