Having been a regular blogger, I have to admit I fell in a hole recently.
Here are my excuses:
The heat! The heat! The heat!
Whether (sorry about the pun) it's just me being unable to contend with the 40C+ (105F+) temperatures, or global warming is making the Australian summer hotter and longer, I'm not sure.
I do know however that, despite having air-conditioning in the house, my creative brain closes down in the hottest months.
I stopped writing the work-in-progress a month ago (it needed only one chapter remaining to finish it), and I haven't yet been able to pick up the threads.
I look out of the window (you don't wander in the garden when the full-sun temperature is around 50C (120F)) and see almost everything is dying.
Bush fires burn in various places across the hills which means you don't feel like going away and leaving the property unattended - just in case!
The animals look lean through lack of nourishing feed so I have been cutting branches of tagasaste (lucerne tree) and acacia.
I know the heat gets to me each summer but this year had been the worst - maybe I'm getting old!
But I don't particularly want to go through another season like it.
The answer I have come up with - move to Tasmania.
That is one reason I have not been writing Iincluding the blog). I've spent literally hours and hours on the Internet checking out real estate.
What a great tool it is to go virtual travelling and house hunting.
Though I am frustrated that I have achieved nothing this month, I did manage two things.
I completed the edits for my next novel, The Black Thread - due in August.
I also embarked on a distance learning course with the University of Exeter - Lost sailing ships of 1780 to 1880 - but more on that later.
I also attended a few meetings including one with Rostrum - public speaking group.
But for now, I will wish for cooler weather in March when a trip to Tassie is on the cards! At least I can go on a short sea voyage across Bass Strait albeit on a modern ferry!
Photo: Bushfire smoke blowing over the paddock - W. Australia, Feb 2007
