We have reached that time of the year again when we put Under a Grey Sky on hold in order to set off down the road or along the rails to collect more stories and pictures for when we return. This year however, regular readers will have noticed other pauses on the blog – unscheduled and unannounced – and it is certainly true to say that the volume of posts here has fallen over the past twelve months.

There are two reasons for that, and thankfully neither of them are because we (Katrin, Lotte and I) have not been getting out and about and having those adventures beyond the front door. The simple fact is that with the launch of Elsewhere this year and an agreement to write a book about the Baltic coast, time has been limited for writing up our wanderings and wonderings here. Alongside this, I haven’t been able to spend so much time looking for guest contributors, and so the combination of these two reasons – both linked to the journal and the book – has meant that Under a Grey Sky has suffered somewhat.

Still, as I look back through the posts that are here from the first six months of 2015 I am looking back on a great half a year of explorations near and far. And the other journey, that of launching the journal from a website and a blog via a crowdfunding campaign to being something printed and solid and held and read by many hundreds of people around the world(!) has been a fantastic experience. It is not easy, of course, and actually the process of writing and editing has been the smallest aspect of running the journal, as distribution and marketing takes more time and energy than the creative process.

Which reminds me… do you have your copy of Elsewhere yet? The first edition – which you can buy here – has some great writing and wonderful illustrations, as well as interviews, photography and reviews. And if you have already read it, liked it, and want to help us make the project sustainable, how about a subscription? The second edition, which will be published in September and which we are working on around our summer trips, promises to be great… we have some wonderful writers, great photography, and a feature that I am working on with my good friend Marcel Krueger about the night train that I am really enjoying putting together.

So that is that… we have a couple of weeks exploring the forests of central Germany, watching out for the witches and the wild boars in the woods, the high fens on the Belgian-German border, and the footpaths and beer glasses of the Ardennes… see you on the other side.

Paul

PS. The image above is from another road trip. I will send a copy of Elsewhere to the first person in the comments to tell me where it is – and if you already have a copy, to a person of your choice…