Lurching...

... for Knots in the String.

We lurch from one day’s weather to the next.

One day is often just one more day on top of the last dozen of rain. I contemplate building an ark.

The next is calm and welcoming, filled with the rich fragrance of spring. So we garden and mow and the place looks grand and park-like and I’m filled with hope and excitement, that the veggie garden will finally be planted out for summer.

But then we have stupendous gale-force winds (96kph) which splinter boughs off one of the old willows and bend and finally snap my snowpeas and sweetpeas. They blow through the canyons of my mind, leaving a thinking space almost stripped clean.

Down the road, an almost 100 year old pine twists and thrashes on itself so that it crashes to the ground over the road and onto the local park.

Tomorrow they say we will have more rain…

I’m sure there are those conspiracy theorists who deny this is climate change.

Good-o, but let me say that normally by now, my veggie garden is filled with growth ready to harvest by Christmas. I haven’t been able to plant the rest of my veg because of rain! On the farm, we would have been watching with delight as the paddocks filled with splendid green pasture, knowing we could harvest top-notch lucerne and grass hay. This year, despite the massive growth, we won’t be cutting anything as it’s unlikely any harvester, tractor – any machinery at all, will be able to get onto the paddocks by December which is our usual harvest month and La Nina is supposed to be with us, raining, until end January.

But then, we still have a farm, stock, farming infrastructure and homes. On the mainland, along the Murray-Goulburn and through the Riverina, family and friends aren’t so lucky. However, as I’ve said before, country folk have spines of forged steel and are immensely phlegmatic.

What I do think is that city folk should be grateful for that, as without that strength and determination, folk wouldn’t have food on the table!

My Time:

Writing onward with the fantasy. It’s simply a joy to write. For what are legends and fables but fantasies of old? It’s been seven years since I wrote a fantasy and yes, I am missing writing hist.fict, but that is a seriously good place to be. I hope the missing will translate into something fabulous after the fantasy is done.

Gardening, see above.

Stitching – canvaswork, another spectacle case in felt, more hearts and decorated diaries and notebooks.

I use the felt white bird motif such a lot. It speaks of joy, of kindness and soothed wounds and of freedom, and I love creating fantasy gardens for the birds. I also love the gold-winged dragonflies that have taken to accompanying the little white bird. I get lost as I stitch.

Rather as I get lost as I write. I vanish to another world, be it 12th century Europe or the oddly enigmatic fantasy world of Eirie. I’ll tell you about Eirie one day. It has the beauty of translucent dragonfly wings.

I get lost walking as well – the terrier and I. We see birds, listen to bird calls and he soaks up dozens of smells - canine news on the wind.

Ballet – I love pointing the toes and arching the feet, fondus, tendus, grand battements and little adages that make the spirit sing.

Bookshelves:

Kindle: Meg Bignells’ The Angry Womens Choir. Wonderful story, very real characters and remarkable solidarity between the women.

Our ballet group is called the Black Swans, simply because we wore black when we performed last year and there’s quite a bit of black worn at the barre. But whilst we’re not an angry group, there is the same harmonious core as Bignell’s choir. We laugh, hug and commiserate - it’s a strong corps de ballet.

Audio: Just finished Gill Hornby’s Miss Austen. Absolutely excellent recounting of the Austen household from Cassandra’s POV. Will be seeking out more of Hornby.

I’ve just started listening to Geneva by Richard Armitage, read by Richard and by Nicola Walker who famously appeared with him in Spooks. There is a third narrator, Jane Perry, but my attention currently is focused on Armitage and Walker.

I chose Geneva when I found out Richard Armitage had written a thriller. I had no doubt it would be excellent because he’s a very intellectual man and Heaven’s knows he has experience in the thriller genre for TV and film. So he knows how to raise the hackles on his audience’s necks.

Richard’s voice is stellar, Nicola’s rich and emotive and Jane’s, as an investigative blogger, is a foil for the tension that is building. Briefly, this is a novel about pharmaceuticals, Geneva/Switzerland and Alzheimer’s Disease. That it will be frightening is, I think, obvious. I am listening to it in the car and I am on the edge of my seat and my knuckles shone bone white on the steering wheel.

On Substack - and in no particular order:

From these newsletters this week, I’ve escaped, learned, vanished into stunning worlds far from mine and had memories stirred. Food for the soul really…

Watching:

Trapped. Or as Netflix calls it, Entrapped. This is the third season for us!

I’m a great fan of Ólafur Darri Ólafsson (another man with a phenomenal voice) and the show is excellent. Brooding, dark and with a jaw-dropping setting from which one expects Norse Gods to emerge. Tight drama.

Finished watching Secret Scotland with comedian Susan Calman. When she reached the rugged shores of the Hebridean islands, it reminded me of a unique group, Fiddlers’ Bid, who visited here twice a number of years ago, for our Ten Days on the Island festival. They rattled the rafters and bought warmth into halls.

I leave you with an excerpt – they’re amazing!