Sometimes just a change is all one needs ro refresh and gird one’s loins for the next of life’s little challenges.
We’ve just had a three month change. OH (recently departed from a corporate life) and I decided we would live away from our permanent home for three months. This is in lieu of the overseas holidays that others take annually by way of a change.
Historically, Australia was said to have derived its burgeoning economy from the sheep’s back. Our history is marked by the introduction of Saxon merino sheep to the colonies in 1804. Farming wool became iconic and superfine Australian wool became world-renowned, beloved everywhere for its softness and purity.
‘I come from a land down under’ as various biographical notes might indicate. Today’s the twenty sixth of January and is our national day, Australia Day. I woke at 6.30 to an archtypical summer day’s – blue skies forever and the promise of beaches
Communication; it takes two. Stay with me and I’ll explain.
Today we took the boat once again to Maria (pronounced Mar-eye-ah) Island. A glorious day, and where we chose to moor, so calm that one could barely tell where water ended and land began. 
The family left the boat and decided to walk along the coastal track to the lagoon and bay where we wished to swim. I had brought my kayak with me and decided that I would paddle round to the bay. Maria Island has snakes here and there and I figured I’d rather take my chances with the water than snakes as anyone who has read this blog knows I have a snake-phobia.
Sounds. My world is made of sounds. I sit with my eyes closed and I listen. I hear the waves chuckling along the shore in a breeze-driven chop. I hear the sea-breeze shivering the leaves of the silver birch, maples and willows; a silvery sound.
Fear.
The slither of ice down the spine.
The way the heart seems to stop beating for a millisecond before it begins a frenzied gallop.
The sort of sensation that writers must call upon when creating tension.
Occasionally, Sei Shonagon would veer into a more detailed journal entry instead of her sharp little vignettes. They could be four or five pages long and invited the reader deep into her life – details of speech, mannerisms and settings all wrapped up in her sometimes gentle, often acerbic point of view. This latest Pillow Book of Prudence will depart from the norm and journey into a longer journal entry in deference to Sei Shonagon.
Desperate for summer: here’s what I pine for!
Chinaman's Beach, Maria Island
Ditto
No ball post today. Today, Sunday in Australia, has been a superb day in my neck of the woods. One of those days where the sky is blue and the river is calm and there is an autumnal somolence that is best illustrated by the amount of time it takes a leaf to flutter to the ground on such a still day.
