Breathe Deep, Seek Peace…

We left House (our miniscule cottage by the sea) to live the split life of city/country, about 6 weeks ago. Since taking up the urban lifestyle (the farm is only 30 minutes from the city and 30 mins from House) we have rushed.

Rushed to spring-clean (I know its autumn but we spend all spring and summer outside), rushed to re-carpet, rushed to rip through the townhouse like a tornado to strip it of all un-necessaries and make it as like to House as possible.

Twice we have prepared for shearing but the changeable weather has put the shearers behind on other properties because of wet sheep and thus we have been placed down the list. Each time, I’ve done buckets of cooking and over time, we’ve ended up eating what was meant for morning and afternoon smokos.

We’ve caught up on dentists, doctors, hairdressers, drycleaners, vets and podiatrists, car services and friends. I’ve been to embroidery classes, OH has had business in Papua New Guinea and through it all, we’ve moved sheep, he’s fenced paddocks, we’ve gardened and kept things tickety-boo.

On this latest shearing delay, I turned to OH and said ‘Now what?’

He said, ‘Let’s go to House until shearing.’

I said, ‘Okay!’ (As if I needed to be pushed!)

And so we’ve been here for a couple of days and shearing begins on Friday. (Stops over weekend and begins again next week by which time it will be raining – for sure! More delays.)

Meanwhile the sun has shone. Once again I blessed the original owners of House who picked this perfect spot facing north where the sun shines into every room. At this time of year, light in House comes into its own, lower in the sky, so bright, so warm – I could put on my swimsuit, lie on the floor with the dogs in the sun and get a suntan!

So whilst OH has been doing his thing, I’ve been attempting to write love scenes for the new book and posted about it. It’s generated a bucket of comment on the Hist.fict authors’ site on Facebook and some comment here which has been rewarding.

A Thousand Glass Flowers has secured a five star review with the highly regarded Readers’ Favourite site  and my cover designer has come up with a spiffing new cover design for Gisborne: Book of Pawns. It is ostensibly for the print release but will of course be uploaded for the e-books. (I hope to release it for viewing tomorrow).

Tinney Heath sent me a wonderful map of Genoa in the late twelfth century for reference purposes and I found a slightly later one of Famagusta … all grist to the mill of Gisborne: Book of Knights

I was also awarded a Golden Arrow by mainstream hist.fict writer, Angus Donald, (Click on the link and watch for the arrow. Turn your sound up!) for promoting his exceptional books and now I simply must become an archer! And I’ve also discovered that the fellowship of writers internationally is a marvellous thing, but especially the fellowship of Indie writers.

But apart from all of that, I’ve also walked the dogs along the beaches, fossicking amongst the mess thrown up by the heavy easterly storms last week. I found a small bright green fish, unusual species, probably only seen when diving. I found a seahorse, or perhaps it’s a pipefish. I found an egg of some sort. It looks like a sand dollar but isn’t and I’m yet to identify it. Sadly these creatures were dead and so are now in our boatshed drying out, losing their smell so I can put them on display in a few months time.

But the most stunning thing I saw was a heron, perfectly and completely white. He stood quiet, elegant, utterly beautiful as he raised his head toward the autumn sun and I thought he symbolised everything about these few days: quiet, solitude, time to take stock … or in the words of Dinotopia‘breathe deep and seek peace’.