The Plot Thus Far..

Outdoor reading, writing and tea-drinking nook

This blog has never been a story of my life but more a series of thoughts, ideas and experiments in pursuit of a particular way of life that interests me, that is, a life lived deeply, connected to the earth, and also lightly, attempting to keep the burden of consumption away from my door. Anyway, in the process, a lot of plot holes have developed that might be tricky to explain away later, so here I am attempting a bit of a catch up post.
Things that transpired last year: carpal tunnel surgery - went brilliantly, fixed carpal tunnel symptoms beautifully. Alas, some of what I thought were carpal tunnel symptoms turned out to be what I think may be arthritis. Nearly all gardening activities exacerbate painful hand symptoms. Ugh. I have given up all my garden work, except for a single garden, so am now living on a very reduced income. Luckily I am good at living on a very small income.
In other news, I finished the first draft of my novel. I was up at Paul's place one day in November, writing away, when suddenly I realised I was done. Surprise! We drank red wine and went to look at the tadpoles in the dam in celebration. Since then I have been revising, revising again, procrastinating about revising, and ignoring the whole thing completely in favour of Christmas and school holidays and lots of grown up children coming to visit etc, etc. I think I will need to do at least one more overhaul before I am happy that it is ready to send off into the wide world. But that is this year's project. Also, I have another novel in mind which I will begin as soon as this one is all polished and pretty. I still am getting articles published in each issue of Earth Garden magazine, which is lovely, though rather poorly paid work. My other project this year will be to find some other accommodating editors who might like to pay me for writing words so that I can earn a living behind my keyboard. I was very sad at the sudden end to my gardening career, which I had enjoyed immensely, and which was beginning to turn into a really useful income generator, however, here I am, contemplating a whole new life of writing, which I may not have been brave enough to tackle had I not been forced into it by circumstances.
There are generally child-related dramas which happen in all the families because children are people and they experiment with relationships and self-identity and careers and study and lack of careers, and oops, other study, and there are downs and ups and downs again. None of these are my stories to tell, but I am immensely proud of my four, who are bravely sailing into adulthood, finding out in the painful, experience-laden manner in which we all have to do, who they are, what they want, and how to navigate a course through the wild, terrifying, beautiful ocean that is life.
Recently my darling Rosy left home, and I miss her happy nature and her calm good sense, and Posy very much misses her sister and buddy. I am thankful that she has only moved to the other side of town, into a share house, and that we will all still be able to get together for dinner and catch up over cups of tea. A really marvellous plus is the raised vegie garden at the share house, over which I have been given free rein... extra vegie real estate. Oh, the riches.. oh, and there are apple trees. And a grape vine..
So that is me, continuing into this year with both trepidation and hope. I have so much good fortune in my life - good family, a darling partner in crime, a wonderful apricot tree, sweet cottage, nice black dog, marvellous friends, and also the readers of this blog who encourage and inspire me whenever I write, which makes my day more often than any of you can know.
And to all of you out there who come back here to read in this little corner of the internet occasionally, my wishes are for your very good health in these interesting times..

Indoor writing happens at the dining room table, or often the kitchen table if there is jam on the stove.