I first became aware of Mary’s blog when she was living in Mongolia and writing – brilliantly – about the experience of taking three children to live in a completely different culture in a part of the world that only belongs in geography books for most of us.
All these years later, we were delighted that she joined us for the Writing into the Dark week, taught by Megan Taylor and even more delighted to find our retreat part of her continuing blog. Full circle.
“I’ve never been away on my own and I’ve never been away from the children for more than 2 nights but, 3 months ago in a moment of pure indulgence I booked myself on a writing retreat in Scotland, run by the tutor from a writing group I used to attend. 5 nights and 6 days of someone preparing and cooking all my food, a bed to myself and fingers crossed maybe a little bit of writing set in beautiful countryside – the week before I finally began to realise what a brilliant idea it had been. Early on Monday morning (5am early – this was definitely dedication) me and 2 zoom writing friends set off on the 8 hour journey. Having seen each other for two hours most Tuesdays on Zoom we felt like we knew each other – only time would tell whether our impressions of each other on Zoom were true in real life. The journey passed in a flash, non stop chatting and laughs as if we’d known each other all our lives.…”
