Storytime

Hard to believe, but another year is about to close it's door. Sometimes I must admit to being very unaware to what I have done, where the days, weeks, months have gone. Surely it was just yesterday we were celebrating an engagement at our place.... same daughter went on to do the Oxfam walk....100kms....amazing! And we were a part of the support crew---very inspirational (although won't be doing that any time soon). This year also saw rollerskating birthday parties...taking other half to Veu de Monde....watching Wuthering Heights at Rippon Lea as the bats whirled overhead....saw some live events .....this year included Le Mis and Rocky Horror....going to Grandparent Day at Kinder and Little Miss staying over for a night or two. It was the year we took Dad to the Brown Brother's Patricia lunch... the year we drove to South Australia for two days, to the Barossa Valley for a few wine barrels and some port.... The year my sister bought a h...

Honestly, I don't know how it is Christmas once again. As my other half says, it seems like only last week we were searching the shed for the tree stand...and here we are, once again dusting the stand off for our tree. Christmas Eve, and the stockings are hung awaiting a visit from Santa. The tree is decked, with presents lying innocently beneath.  Although these days, only two of us (oops and of course Tigger the wonder cat) are home. And Tigger has her own stocking, patiently waiting for a gift or two. Hopefully she's been a good cat this year. It's definitely not the same without children at home. When they were younger there was always that mad sense of excitement, the battle of getting them to sleep at some decent time. The cookies and glass of milk, that very quickly turned into a glass of port, left out for Santa. The carrots for the reindeer. When the children were school age we created a new tradition. They were to plan and cook the Chrismas Eve...

We had a busy weekend recently. Most of this involved grand-parenting duties---there was berry picking and Christmas tree purchasing-----tree decorating and flower picking.....flower arranging (in shot glasses)...and going to the park for some swings, some slides, some climbing and monkeying around....and of course...hand stands. That was just Saturday. On Sunday we took Young Miss to Other Half's Work Family Christmas event---at Luna Park. It was her first time there and she had seen videos of the rides (wonders of youtube) and knew which ones she wanted to go on and which she considered too scary. That is of course until she got there. She began sedately----a ride on the flying elephants....then a ride on the dragon roller coaster. Courage was gained and she went on the ghost train (bit scary with those skeletons)- bit of a breather for a visit to see Santa and receive a show bag of goodies- then onto the merry go round (while Grandpa went on a scary ride)....

It's that time of year when everything begins to finish up before the hectic chaos of Christmas. For me last week was the final Tinies Time and Storytimes for the year. As usual it was a happy / sad moment. Happy because we do need that break....the children and their parents need a break from me ....and for me it's a chance to get all the other library work done that doesn't involve singing Galumph went the little Green Frog one day..... So much 'out-of-sight' work such as cleaning up and planning for next year...stock work and ordering....mending and repairs...re-discovering my desk under it's habitual piles of 'my kids would LOVE those books'. And coming up with new ideas for programs and school holidays- anything to help make the library more fun. It was also sad because I may not see some of these kids again. Very true for my Storytime group- they grow up, move on- so many are heading for school next year. Which is fantastic and natural, and ...

Was one of the phrases recently stated during the LRW Christmas breakup. It's always a fun meeting, even if we do have to do some serious business....it is a time to unwind...to have a laugh or two....share some great seasonal food....and of course look back on the year. This looking back is fantastic. Often so much has been achieved...so many exciting new publications....great opportunities taken. We head off in new directions, sometimes surprised by where we end up. This year the group has once again done well----between the eight of us many short stories and many more poems written, awards have been won, pieces sold, picture books making their debut into the world, other picture books have been translated and sold into many more countries world wide, Nanowrimo and it's cousins featuring writing a blog or a flash fiction piece each day were given the go ahead....pieces were written, then re-written, then edited, then re-edited, then workshopped, then re-written yet again...

A few months ago I went off to the poetry event at Christmas Hills (a very good gig if anyone is heading out that way) and for the past few times I had given myself the challenge of memorising one of my poems to recite. I always admire poets that do this, simply recite without that piece of paper or book in their hand. And yes, it's not that easy, and often I'll stumble or misplace a word or two, even edit as I go along (thankfully if it's a new poem no one in the audience will ever know)...but the reaction is always good. Always positive and encouraging. But the last one I went to I was not feeling the best, was even hesitant about reading anything, was pushed (in a nice way) to read and had no poem to recite. So imagine how I felt when I stood up and someone said 'do you have a poem to recite for us' and when I said no.....  they said 'awwwwww but that's what we wanted.' I felt like I had not lived up to expectations. I had failed, not done w...

At the moment, I'd rather be doing anything else but write. And so I am...not writing that is. Oh I dabble, an attempt of a poem here, rejigging an idea there, but actual getting stuff done...it's not happening. I sometimes like to think 'if only I had more time'.  Well I do have time, unfortunately I tend to spend it doing anything else but put pen to paper. If for every photograph of a sunrise I took I wrote a short story.... Or every time I wandered in the garden snapping away at flowers and plants I spent the equal amount of time editing... or redrafting.... Imagine how much work would get done. But I don't. Sometimes I get the guilts...I have this free time and I SHOULD be at the computer, hard at the novel...instead I am... making tarts for the girls at work...(these limoncello tarts were delish by the way) or stuffed toys. Why exactly am I making toys? No babies in my life that would happily drool over them. I make the...

This is hard to say....very hard to say....but here goes..... my desk is a mess. There, it's said...in black and white...out there for others to know my shame. As you all know by now I am a list girl- and top of that list for the past umpteenth years has been DECLUTTER AND TIDY MY DESK. I do have visions of a desk area looking vaguely like this... Actually my desk could NEVER look anything like that- it's just not in my personality to be so minimal. But I aim to have at least a part of my desk visible under the piles of accumulated crap ...er I mean stuff. ...no I mean 'important' papers. I do clean up my desk area...occasionally. When the guilt becomes so thick that it strangles me...or when I can't find the computer. And it looks nice, for a day...two at the max...then somehow these tiny gremlins come out at night and ....heh presto...back to chaos. I will say now that this----points to picture above- is NOT my desk. However I feel that this i...