Can you guess why?
‘School holidays are over …?’
Nope. (Although the silence is rather sweet …)
‘Your book edits are finished …?’
Nope. (I’m getting there though …)
‘You’ve lost 5 kg in the last week …?’
Nope. (I wish…)
Want me to tell you?
Of course you do …
Taa DAAA … I started a new diary/planner this week! Yes! All those crispy, smooth, beautiful, clean pages waiting for me to fill in with all manner of things. Excitement overload, I tell you!
Well, my wonderful readers, how are you surviving the school holidays? Loving every single second of not having to think about nor make school lunches, sort out pickups, drop-offs, sporting events, and ‘is it regular or sports uniform today/tomorrow’?
Or are you sick of juggling play dates, sleepovers, nights away ‘because we need to do something with the kids for the holidays other than just build cattleyards/novel edits/stay at home’?
Today hails the start of the September school holidays. For those of you past having kids of school age, this won’t necessarily cause a bump on your road. Except, perhaps, if you’re a grey nomad travelling around and all of the sudden everywhere you want to go is booked out, jam packed with screaming kids or even – woe forbid – the local Dan Murphy’s or IGA has sold of out of your favourite wine (#mumsinneedofliquidtheraphy).
All I can say is thank goodness, winter is nearly behind us. After the warmth of the Pilbara, this time last year, I can categorically say, ‘I loath and detest the southern winter.’ I am currently dreaming of sun and nice days. Thankfully I have been noticing the wattle is going mad, blazing a brilliant gold in both our paddocks and along the sides of the roads. This usually hails the impending arrival of Spring but I will be having some strong words with the weather if it doesn’t come true with that promise. I NEED SOME WARMTH UP HERE ON MY HILL!
With pressing family and farm commitments, I’ve had to take a hiatus from the book world to concentrate on my loved ones. I’ve also had to reassess all my commitments – writing, family & farm – and thus my new book LAKE HILL is now slated for a 2017 Mother’s Day release rather than Christmas. I wanted to make this the very best novel I could, for your ultimate reading enjoyment, and needed more time to craft this wonderful story that I so want to share with you.
Oh my Gosh. I think winter has finally hit our hills with a vengeance. The thickness of the frost on the ground yesterday morning had us thinking it had snowed! I could only cringe on behalf of my poor Jacaranda Tree snug under it’s super-bag (top) and layers of mulch (bottom) and send a prayer up to the heavens it wasn’t going to take affront at the cold and curl up and die. Due to us living beside a huge lake, we don’t generally get severe frosts here, but as the lake is currently very low, it was Jack Frost’s turn to get even.
We’re a pretty lucky family. Creativity abounds, be it in song, words on a page, handiwork, metal work, woodwork, jewellery making or even via the lens of a camera.
It was the images taken by our eldest son, Brent, which caused the latest creative hullabaloo. While his mother was labouring away trying to give birth to her fifth full-length novel (seventh if you count the novella’s), this lad was up on a nearby rock peak, taking photos of the sunset with his iPhone.
And what photo’s they were.
I’m not a big fan of housework, but in saying that, I adore a clean and orderly house. (Admin: Some of us have learnt to live without one if it means avoiding housework....) If things are where they are supposed to be and the kitchen floor doesn’t resemble a chook pen (that photo, incidentally is not our house!), it helps me at least ‘feel’ like there is some semblance of normality about our crazy household.
These last few weeks have been head down and bottom up with me writing very, very hard. There have been early mornings and long days at the computer with lots of cups of Earl Grey provided by H, while late afternoons are filled with “kid runs” to dancing, swimming, netball and myriad of other pressing motherly and farming chores. And cooking. Yes, there is always baking to be done!
Where is April going? Seriously? Not only have the kids been on school holidays, I’m trying to finish my next novel, LAKE HILL and the farm jobs are piling up like dirty laundry. The only way I manage to get any writing done (particularly when the kids are home) is to go back to the “good old days” and keep dairy farming hours ie. - roll out of bed by 5am.
