Storytime

I have just come back from spending ten wonderful days in Vanuatu. It was truly inspirational in so many ways. Beautiful climate, beautiful country, beautiful people. We did the usual touristy things. Snorkelled, swam, walked the beaches, zoomed on buggies and water boats, ate fresh seafood every night. But we also had the chance to get off the beaten track and see how the locals live. Just off Melee Bay Steve got to plant taro and dig holes for the yams. I got to get down in the dirt and plant the yams, right way up, the right depth, and to make sure the earth was fine enough for the plant to grow well. And to get the mound the right height. (I'm so used to planting in a drought and created wells around each yam mound, you don't need this in Vanuatu) We also went to Tanna for four days. Tanna was amazing. We stayed in a beach side bungalow on the south east of the island, away from the main town, away from it all. We also got the chance to walk along the rim of an ac...

I will say up front I love a bit of nature. Am happy to spend time watching birds and animals...have been known to stop the car to watch an echidna scramble up a bank, to help a blue tongue cross the road, to stand in awe as the wedge tailed eagles soar over the house. I'm captivated by spiderwebs glistening with dew; the silhouette of birds nests in winter's trees; enjoy the scrape of beak on palm as I hand feed the king parrots. But I can never capture the experience on paper. I'm forever with a camera in my hand. Trying to get a glimpse of what lies before me. For that frame to share the smallest part of what I have seen. It rarely works. But that is nothing to the frustration I feel when I try to capture some natural occurrence. The words become thick with clunky cliches, purple prose trips off my tongue....and I am left with a pile of nothing. And yet I keep trying. Inspired by poets such as Anthony Lawrence ( I fell in awe of his poetry many years bac...

I don't rhyme. Actually that is a lie. I can rhyme when I do a  Storytime or Tinies Time- even invent my own version of Polar Bear Polar Bear turn around etc...but these rhymes are created in mere seconds and are for the enjoyment of children. There is no depth involved at all. What I can't do is rhyme for a 'real' poem. (notice the word real). I have attempted to write rhyming poetry, perhaps once or twice. I seem to lack the rhythm and meter- or perhaps it is an integral part of myself that is missing. The rhyming factor. Whatever it is I don't have it. And it became very obvious at a poetry afternoon I went to on Sunday. A friend of mine hosted an inaugural Poetry Afternoon - she wanted to show her 'group' that poetry is more than the rhyming couplets they learnt at school. Have I mentioned her 'group' consisted of nearly 30 senior citizens?  They were eager for an afternoon of poetry and when it began with a co-hort reading Banjo Pa...

I'm a list writer from way back. Every day has a list, and every day I mark off what has been achieved. Today - my day off and designated writing day- has a long list of to dos. Unfortunately not all writing to dos. Ring doctor is in there as well as pick up car. But I had hoped being a list maker would make me more organised. I fear not. I do try. A few months ago I bought a filing cabinet. Things (and not necessarily files) are in the filing cabinet but in no certain order - that will take a full day of concentrated effort and time-  and as yet it's not on my to do list. This is what  I dream it will look like. A girl has to dream. And last weekend we got our wardrobe organised. After much sweat (on my husbands behalf) we have that organised. Well semi- organised. Frankly by the time we'd finished I simply threw everything in the wardrobe so we could find the bed and walk on the floor without tripping over a pile of jumpers. But it will be done (once it's ...

Hmm it's that time of the year when, as a writer, I begin to wonder what on earth have I done? I look at my goals for the year and even though there are notes, perhaps even scratchings on most of them....I'm still wondering what has been accomplished. My writing group last month also revisited their goals. It was an interesting meeting to hear how some have been working dedicatedly at knocking down their goals, systematically bit by bit. Some knew exactly what they were aiming for and what steps they would have to take to get there. Others were amazed at how different their actual accomplishments were to the goals they wanted to achieve at the beginning of the year.  And a few, who knew that this year would be unsettled for various reasons and hadn't made any goals were able to think of a few that could be achieved by the end of the year. But that is what is so fairy floss about goals. They are not set in concrete.  They are too easily moulded and reshaped, and whe...

Last week we had a Princess and Prince storytime for the school holidays. It was also a chance for the children (and myself) to dress up. It was wonderful to see little princes in home made cardboard shields and swords, fabric pinned for capes (not to mention the little boys dressed up as firemen and magicians...why not?) ....and the wonderful array of princesses. From Snow White to Cinderella, Ariel to Belle...and all those in between (mostly fairy princesses). When you have nearly 60 children and 90% of them have gone to the effort of dressing up it is a wonderful sight. I myself was a Handsome Prince (I was told I looked more like Puss in Boots but that's by the way) and it was an afternoon of lots of stories and songs - and the making of a crown and magical wand was a huge success. There is nothing like a child's face when you sprinkle glitter on something they have created. Even though most of the little girls wanted pink crowns and pink wands (and I'm afraid the...

School holidays mean more work. Not because I have school aged children that need to be entertained and amused (been there done that got the T-shirt ) but because in the library school holidays mean a lot more folks through the door. More children, more adults, more programs to run. And it is nice to have something to do other than repeatedly telling children to 'please don't climb on that it's a bookcase, don't walk on chairs, get down from the table, that is a window climb down, pick up all the books you've just thrown onto the floor, inside voices, don't run in the library' etc etc (but that is so for another blog). It's the programs we run. Lots of fun and we do go that extra mile....more involved activities, and if we can dress up we dress up. Or maybe that's just me? Anyway last week I ran the 'it's the big bad...' I wore a red cape, carried a basket of goodies (in this case books to read) and skipped through the library...