The Hodgepodge, a writer’s journal
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The months whizzing by
I had my first photoshop lesson this afternoon. This is a photo I took at Healesville Sanctuary back in April or May. I was captivated by the wood swallows – such beautiful little birds. Actually, I’m captivated by Healesville Sanctuary! I was quite envious when Keith took our last lot of couchsurfers there without me. ...
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Continuum 14
Unfortunately this year I double-booked and we were hosting couchsurfers on the Queen’s birthday weekend when Continuum is always held. I don’t really know how I managed to do that! I did go into the city on both the Sunday and the Monday, regardless and heard a few sessions but it was not the usually ...
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Writer’s Block, Anxiety and Beyond
I was asked by a colleague to write something about writer’s block for our students but I can’t call myself an expert on writer’s block as I can’t remember a time when I’ve actually suffered from it. I suffer from procrastination, an inability to prioritise my writing, and I’ve certainly done my share of staring ...
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Poetry
Before I left Melbourne for a month in Brisbane, I vowed to learn seven poems by heart – this would easy, I thought, because I’d be walking by myself and it would give those walks a focus. What I should have done was to choose the poems and copy them before I left home. Then ...
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Keeping records…
There are a bewildering number of ways of record-keeping these days. I look at Insta every morning to see people’s beautiful hand-made knits and keep up with the sewing world. I check Facebook for events and the doings of my family and friends. There’s email, of course. I keep a journal. My current project demands ...
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Week One – May Gibbs, Creative Time Fellowship
It’s the beginning of the second week of my Creative Time May Gibbs Fellowship in Brisbane and I feel as though I’m living in three time zones – the present, in which I’m a little homesick, my own past and the World War II years, the time in which the book is set. So far ...
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News and a mini-review, Cold Pastoral by Rebecca Dunham.
First, the news – I’m delighted to have been placed fourth in the Kent and Sussex Poetry Society Open Poetry Competition. I picked up the flyer in the library in Glasgow and brought it all the way home, where I stuck it on my blackboard. First competition entered this year and I’m totally chuffed! My ...
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Books read
I thought I’d just better list the books I’ve read this year. It’s a good time to do it because in a week or so I’ll be preparing for a new class, ‘The Curate, the Valet and the Queen Bee’ – on Barbara Pym, P. G. Wodehouse and E. F Benson. So: Philip Pullman, La ...
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Riddle me this…
Recently at a writer’s lunch, someone asked everyone at the table if they felt they were – and I can’t remember the absolutely correct word that was used – but whether or not they felt they were somehow destined to be writers. One of the people present turned to me and said, ‘You told me ...
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Art, Anxiety and a Long Walk – a review of sorts.
this is where they all sing the first daylight whether or not there is anyone listening from, ‘The Laughing Thrush’ – W. S. Merwin, The Shadow of Sirius. For Christmas last year, a colleague gave me a copy of Kyo Maclear’s beautiful collection of – notes? observations? meditations? Birds Art Life Death; A field guide ...