Storytime

We had Miss Two for the weekend recently, and we took her adventuring. We went on a drive out to the country to visit the Alexandra and District Open Gardens. She does love roaming our garden. Just discovering that if you are walking on a hill you have to lean, but not too far...and that at times you will fall over. She loves going out and picking an orange from the tree...she sometimes eats it...always loves to carry it around with her. We visited three gardens, each one offering up something different. Something to think about in our own plot. Whether it was the plant combinations...the colours... Or the fact that Miss Two enjoyed them all. She had a great time. Running on the lawns when there were lawns... stopping at times to look at the flowers and say 'aw, cute.' I found so many inspirations for my garden. Yep so want one of these... and I liked how regimented these hedges were then that burst of frothy flowers at the bottom. I li...

A friend, and fellow writer, recently was talking about one of the pieces she was working on. She talked about word count, getting back into it..then she said...'trouble is I'm finding it boring to write.' Alarm bells went off. I have the sneaky suspicion if you are finding it boring to write, anyone reading it will find it just as boring. I'm not saying everything you write has to be on-the-seat-of-your-pants action packed. There doesn't have to be adventure and suspense in every chapter (unless of course, you are writing a book packed with adventure and suspense)...but I do think you have to enjoy the writing part. It's like everyday can't be a holiday. (but wouldn't it be lovely if it was!) And of course there are boring bits to writing. I find the editing the most mind numbing sleep inducing horrid stuff...mind you writing the synopsis is my most hated...but that's not boring. That is just difficult. Editing, going back over and ove...

Sunday was the annual Nissan Family morning at Luna Park . For the past few years we have had Little Miss sleep over, with a bit of Christmas lights hunting, and then taken her in the morning. At first she was timid...unsure of the rides. But this year...she knew no fear! She went on the Coney Island Top Drop...twice...once with me, once by herself. That was fun, not scary at all she told me. She went with Grandpa on the Dodgems, while I admired their driving skills. Or lack thereof. Even though she went on the Merry-go-round last year, this year she decided she was too big. So she went on the Spider. Three times. We would get on, scream throughout the ride, then once off she would run around and line up again with a 'come on, get on with me.' Grandpa and I took turns. This year she ventured on the Silly Serpent...twice....then onto the Twin Dragon. Twice. Granpa even talked her onto going onto the Scenic Railway. They sat in the first seat ( I sat ...

I LOVE autumn. Yep, love love love it! It doesn't have the harshness and heat of summer. (and I so don't do summer well). Doesn't have the icy bite of winter. Or the -in-your-face-look-at-me of spring. There is a gentleness about it. A time of reflection. In the garden things begin to slow down. It doesn't stop. There is still growth - a lot of fungi have their time in the sun. It's when the world begins to slow down, to ready for the winter. Up here in the Dandenong Ranges we are so lucky with all the autumnal colour from trees. A glorious sight as the trees colour, then slowly the leaves fall. And there is nothing like walking, stomping, or even jumping into piles of leaves is there? 'Every leaf speaks bliss to me, fluttering from the autumn tree.'   Emily Bronte. It gives me the chance to get out into the garden, without the heat of summer, and move things around. Tinker and tweak. This is when you notice what is working, what isn...

In a spurt of nostalgic boredom I began a jigsaw I found in my son's room. It brought to mind all those years helping Mum do one, or even later on my sister and her family. Now this was a jigsaw never attempted. Pristine in its box. I commandeered the dining table and set forth. Not with gusto I must admit but with a small smile and an even smaller hope that it would be finished. I won't even tell you how long it took just to do the outside edge- seemingly easy you may think. Not at all...but slowly, slowly, ever so slowly it began to come together. The parts that were quite easy to identify were the first to emerge. The edges as you can see are still not together. Few more weeks, yes weeks, and we were up to this stage. It's something I do when I'm walking past, perhaps cooking tea in the kitchen and just wander in and see if something fits...somewhere. After nearly a month this was all I had....not much at all. Unfortunately there is a stron...

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...