This week I've found myself in a strange place.

Coinciding with certain...ahem...female phases, as well as a kind of discouraged (but not hopeless) downswing in the novel submission process, I am without both my children from 1pm-4pm every day this week.

Thanks to Zoo camp.

So I decided it was foolish to take girl2 at 1pm and then drive all the way back home just to drive out there again by 3:30 to pick up all the girls.

So I've been hiking the Hoyt Arboretum instead. I hike for an hour-hour and half, and then I sit at the restaurant patio just inside the Zoo gates and write.

It's like a sabbatical. I'm alone hiking (and strangely enough Hoyt arboretum has all these Japanese trees and shrubs I'm using in my forest scenes) and thinking, and then I'm alone writing.

Whilst I am still kind of in retreat mode here (not hanging with my usual mommy peeps or playdates)I am also feeling refreshed and more centered.

Yep, I like writing. It is what I want to do. Sometimes I lose sight of that when I have word count goals or am forcing myself to finish something.

Meanwhile, I have two more afternoons! See you among the trees....