Autumn, my favourite time of year. I’m so glad the heat has finally evaporated and I can enjoy the perfect blend of crisp, cool mornings with the sun’s warmth just peeking through enough to ease us in. I get a bit poetic in the Autumn - it’s my season.

Welcome back to Collecting Conversations. I’ve been collecting a few - Quelle Surprise!

Over the summer I was aksed if I would do a Podcast! It’s all well and good springing new worlds like this on me, but I have no idea what a Podcast is (always a little late to to the party). Nevertheless, I kept to my self made promise of saying ‘YES’ to life’s new opportunities and experiences and last Friday, Rachel Peru came all the way from Leeds to my SheShed, to interview me.

We met on instagram. Rachel went grey at 13. She’d been dying her hair for 30 years, then at 46 decided enough was enough. Embracing her natural self she embarked on a modelling career. Got signed to a profesional plus size model agency at 48, worked with Ashley Graham (American plus-size model and television presenter), been on photo shoots with Davina Macall and recently launched "‘Out of the Bubble’ https://anchor.fm/outofthebubble her podcast. It’s about women over 40 who are embracing life.

I was honoured when she called and asked if I’d take part. Even more so when I found out she’s a North country girl from Ikley, West Yorkshire. We chatted like old friends. She recoreded the whole conversations. God knows what I said, I can’t remember a thing. That’ll be the Menopause! Our chat will air in October - I’ll keep you posted.

Now - getting back to this menopause malarkey. As you know I’ve had a tiny distraction from the mens book as I nipped off to muse about the menopause. A tiny book, now called: Menopause - A Hot Topic! is off to the printers next week and should be in my sweaty palms by the end of September. It’s looking good.

The interviews with the men are going well and there should be a post out next week with extracts from my latest interview.

Here’s to Autumn, a time to gather everything in.

Next week I’ve got another public speaking event coming up. I’m not looking forward to it. I really wish I felt better about it. It’s the adrenalin. It literally takes over my body and that’s not good - I’m allergic to adrenalin! If I dont manage it my heart rate sinks so low that they have to call an ambulance (it’s happened before!) I might have to go on another course - breathe!

Harvesting the fruits of my labour.