"Semi-Sabbaticals"

Some of you may have noticed I have been a bit quieter some days on here of late. My apologies to our readers for this, but I've found that I've needed a bit of a mini-sabbatical here and there to spend time with family, read a good book, watch a good movie and so on -- and also pursue a little writing.

The latter one might find a little confusing -- a blogger taking time off to write? The day in and day out of running a site like the NLM, looking for news and items of day-to-day interest, managing correspondence, let alone domestic and professional obligations, take a great deal of time, such that it can be very difficult to find opportunities to do something as simple as sit down and pursue some research, do some original writing and so on.

That practical difficulty is a source of great penance I can assure you, for there is nothing I love more than to pursue the writing of historical pieces or original articles and commentaries. If I could, I would do it everyday. But these occasional "semi-sabbaticals" do much to recharge one.