My big fat Greek gap year

I’m fifty, with a good job, a lovely home, fabulous friends, neighbours and grown-up children and some gorgeous grandchildren. 

And Lush Places, this magical corner of Dorset where I live, is the lushest place you could ever imagine. Those of you who have called in on my blog over the past five years can vouch for that.

From our front door we can walk up through the fields to the highest point in the county. We can look out and breathe in this beautiful landscape which envelops us like a cosy blanket. It’s familiar and it’s gorgeous.

It’s our life.

I should be counting my blessings and rejoicing in everything around me. So what am I doing? Mr Grigg is retiring, I’m giving up the day job, we’re going to let our home in Lush Places and rent a house on the island of Corfu. We're taking the plunge and going on a grown-up gap year in September. 

My Big Fat Greek Gap Year.

For I’ve become exhausted by the demands of living in The Enchanted Village, where the two of us have somehow ended up having more pies than fingers to put in them, cheerfully suggesting this, that and the other and then rolling up our sleeves and getting on with it with an army of willing accomplices.

So we are giving it up, just for a year. I don’t want to fall out of love with Lush Places. We just need a break.

And I’d like you to join me on this journey, this adventure, this descent into the labyrinth as I struggle to differentiate between calimera and calimari and flit around in flimsy white cotton (like a Greek goddess, perhaps), get my muse fired on all cylinders and try to finish the novel.

Mr Grigg, meanwhile, will be learning how to play backgammon or pose with his pals on a suitable bench.

He’ll need something to do in the winter evenings. With Metaxa Mikey, Mr Ouzo and Kostas Kumquat in our new enchanted village. We just haven't met them yet.

That’s about it.

Love Maddie x