Tomorrow I leave the big city and head off to a summer in the country, but I’ll be back for a very exciting weekend in July that I want to tell you about. A new poetry festival called “Polyverse Poetry” will be held on the grounds of Loughborough University during the weekend of 24-26 July. You can read about it here. There will be readings,workshops,performances, book signings — everything one could hope for from a summer literary festival. I’ve been looking forward to this all year. Not only will there be many poets there I already know such as Susan Richardson, Carol Thistlethwaite, Gerry Potter, Gail Ashton, Carole Baldock, Nick Carbo; but there will be many others I can’t wait to learn more about. But if that isn’t good enough…my own poetry play, “Dreams of May,” will be performed on the Saturday night by the wonderful actress, Rosalind Cressy, who featured in its London premiere back in 2006. But if you need even more tempting than that…wait for it…..

Carol Ann Duffy, our new Poet Laureate, has also agreed to appear and will be reading and answering questions as the second half of the Saturday evening event!!! Undoubtedly, I’ll be telling you more about the festival over the next few weeks, but I thought I’d give you the heads up. Tickets are on sale now. I hope to see some of my friends there.

But for now as I prepare to wave goodbye to England for a few weeks, here are a few photos I’ve been snapping with my trusty phone/camera, in case I get homesick:

Swans on Dorney Lake, near Eton

View of Regents Park

Tower Bridge from
the Thames Clipper

Shulbrede Priory, Surrey

And now one more thing. I just saw that Lauri, who writes a terrific blog here, has awarded me a “Let’s Be Friends” Award. It says:
Blogs that receive the Let’s Be Friends Award are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers.

How wonderful is that? So now I pass it on to:
The Expat Writer
Lane’s Write
Glyn Pope
Carrie Etter
Debi Alper
Daydreams in the Shed
Chez Aspie
Fiction is Stranger than Fact

These are all interesting and generous blogs. Do give them a look if you don’t already know them.

See you on the other side of the pond!