Escape...sometimes it is necessary...

Sometimes you have to escape and get a different perspective on things.

Yes I know I am very lucky to be able to work from home.  I did twenty three years of working in an office every day...and I loved it at the time but having now worked from home for the past six years I would not want to go back even though I probably do more hours in a week now than I ever did in an office job!

I still get up early, I am a mother and need to do the school run!  But I can plan my day more or less as I want to, I still have my 'real' job to get done but that is only part time and I tend to get that done first thing.  Then I have the day to myself which I plan out as I am busy so it needs to be organised with Kitchen Witch work, book writing and marketing and magazine writing, my own studies along with all that other normal stuff like the housework and cooking meals.  I also like to make sure I try and fit in some spiritual time too.

However when you work from home it is also very easy to become isolated and to suddenly realise that you have spent the last week (or more) sitting in the same spot inside the same four walls with little or  no outside contact and only a brief amount of daylight on the school run (when I say 'run' I actually mean a ten minute walk, running is not on my list of general activities...).

I have spent the last few days saying "tomorrow I will go out" then it gets to the next day and I find some other excuse not to go.  Until this morning with a gentle nudge from my husband (actually an insistence that I get out before I go stark raving mad) I set out on an expoitition.

I had a lovely drive through the countryside, windows open, Radio Two blaring on a journey to Stansted House which is a local stately home that has beautiful surroundings, a garden centre, a farm shop and  most importantly (to me anyway) a very nice cafe.

I sat in a converted orangerie with a coffee and the biggest wedges of granary toast I have ever seen and I wrote, I had taken paper and reference books with me so I just wrote and wrote.  A bit later I had a very yummy raspberry and rose drink followed by an absolutely delicious quiche and salad.  Yes there was cake and it all looked amazing but I am embarrassed to say I was too full...I know it's shocking...but I got a lot of writing done.  An article on spell casting for the Dolmen Chronicles and a lot of work done on the Celtic Goddess Course, perfect to be joined by Brighid and Cerridwen whilst sitting in the sunshine.

And now I am back home and the housework is still waiting but I do feel refreshed and inspired.  I think I shall make it a regular jaunt...