Beachcomber…
Walking along the beach on a winter’s day is almost as perfect as being on the same beach in summer.
Walking along the beach on a winter’s day is almost as perfect as being on the same beach in summer.
This weekend we left House and headed inland through all the back roads to a little village we happen to like quite a lot.
We passed a number of stone cottages like this.
See how blurred this pic is?
That’s how my eyes felt after reading the books. I’m learning about Byzantium in the pursuit of Tobias’s journey to find the rare dye, Tyrian purple in 1194 AD.
So today, I spent the day outside at the farm – you know how I get cabin fever.
I love lifestyle blogs. Perhaps as a novelist, I should focus more on reading writers’ blogs but the truth is I have an insatiable curiosity about people’s lives – far more interesting than how this character, that agent or those publishers behave.
One of my favourites is Coal Valley View…
Ah, my husband and I are getting old.
What do you mean, you ask?
We trotted off to Dark Mofo tonight…
that winterfest designed to celebrate the longest nights of winter in Tasmania.
A winter weekend of pure escapism. Yesterday, two beaches 40 kms apart and no camera.
Today, two beaches 10kms apart and a camera but remembering to take pics this morning and not this afternoon. By the time these 3 days are done, we will have walked about 30 kms which mightn’t sound much really. But yesterday morning, I had to walk up and down the cliff path carrying Old Dog who couldn’t manage it. Yesterday afternoon, I had a brain conniption and persisted in climbing huge sandbanks to run down the other side.
Took a day off this week from the book and the farm to have a picnic in the Derwent Valley which we had heard always looks beautiful in the autumn. But we’d never managed to get there before leaf fall. I love amber and topaz, garnet and shiraz, pinot noir and chartreuse. (Colours I mean, not alcohol!) And was determined we’d catch the colour before it dropped…
Anzac Day, April 25th, inspires many things if you are an Australian or a New Zealander – thoughts about mateship, courage, sacrifice, belief in fundamental rights. It also reminds we children of Anzacs that what we are right now is a product of the spirit and ethos captured on that small beach at Gallipoli 99 years ago.
Being Crusoe occasionally has a lot to recommend it. Far from the madding crowd, alone with one’s thoughts, being a small cog in a great big beautiful world of wonder and all at my very doorstep – 20 minutes away by boat! In 20 minutes I’m in a national park within a world heritage area. It doesn’t get any more fortunate or any better!