It's difficult to process all that's going on in the world today, isn't it? So it's good to find ways in which we can recharge, refresh and regroup.
We'll all have different routes to stepping away from the trials and worries of everyday life - spending time on the river, running, gardening, knitting, or reading, perhaps (if you pick the right book).
This week I have been working on an article where I've been speaking to three women who escape the commitments and concerns of daily life through their campervans.
One of these women told me how, having a very challenging job, her vintage VW van was her way of reconnecting and finding her self again.
Her joy and passion for her campervan, and the companionship and support she received from the community she had discovered as a result of owning it, was uplifting and quite infectious.
Though I don't plan to buy one yet, I have often thought how nice it would be to have a campervan as a base for a festival, a little home from home.
Of course most events I attend these days are book and literature festivals and there's not usually a lot of camping involved in those. And we don't have to travel far either - we've got quite a few to choose from in Suffolk now. So, if you're ready, here are a few dates for your diary...
In a couple of weeks it's the INK Festival of short plays. In May, in addition to historian Alison Weir visiting us in Woodbridge, Suffolk Libraries is holding its DiscoveReads festival in Ipswich. In June we have Slaughter in Southwold, First Light in Lowestoft and the Felixstowe Book Festival (tickets went on sale this weekend). But we also have the new Leiston Book Festival on 20 September and the recently launched Ipswich Book Festival and Bury St Edmunds Literature Festival both in October. It's quite a list. Perhaps I need a campervan to tour them all.
Thank you for reading.