We had our first frost for the year last week. That and the cooler temperatures are signs of seasonal change as we slip through autumn. It’s also a warning that my dahlias are coming to an end. Their leaves are starting to yellow and the blooming is slowing but I’m still able to pick huge […]
My book of the month: April 2021
I wish I’d discovered this book when it was published in 2019. That was a busy and stressful year for me so I guess that’s why I missed it. But now I’ve read it and wow – it is the most astonishingly poignant story I have read in a long time. Immediately I started reading […]
Weekend reading
We’ve had one complete week of constant rain (294 mm) followed by a week of gloriously sunny days. Of course, it would have been better if the rain had been spread out but weather systems don’t work like that, do they? Many plants in my garden drowned. That means plenty of tidying up to do […]
Weekend reading
It’s been an interesting couple of weeks. My garden club is meeting again and so is my quilting group, so I’m enjoying meeting new people with common interests and getting involved. The state government suspended our local council and replaced it with an interim administrator, initially for three months. There’s been lots of rain and […]
My book of the month: March 2021
It always intrigues me when an author takes facts – in this case, that Elizabeth Macarthur was the wife of John Macarthur and they both emigrated to New South Wales in the early days of the colony – and applies the ‘what if’ question. In this case, Kate Grenville asks: what if Elizabeth had written […]
Weekend reading
What a satisfactory week! It’s been sunny every day and that’s helped my dahlia flowers unfurl their petals. I’ll write more on that later and show you some photos. I’m so glad I planted these glorious blooms. The sunshine cheered my spirits this week. The leaves on the deciduous trees in my garden are changing […]
Weekend reading
It’s a stunning Southern Highlands day today – sunny, with light winds to dry out the ground after yesterday’s tumultuous storm. I’m gazing out the window of my office and watching the washing flapping in the breeze. I love that. The smell of freshly-washed and air-dried clothes and sheets – it’s one of the small […]
Weekend reading
The current Facebook debacle in Australia reinforces something that we already knew – we have no control over the availability of content on sites we don’t own. It’s a message that hit some Australian users with force yesterday when Facebook stripped their pages. With that in mind, I’m starting a new feature here – weekend […]
My book of the month: February 2021
What a fun story! Queen Elizabeth II as a sleuth (discreetly, of course) is a wonderful premise. The Queen is at Windsor Castle ahead of her 90th birthday celebrations and she is not happy. A guest has died in one of the castle bedrooms and the Queen wants to get to the bottom of the […]
Is creativity in your DNA?
Our genes are the basic unit of heredity. They hold the key to many of our characteristics: the shape of our nose, the colour of our eyes, and whether we have curly or straight hair. But do they carry more than physical characteristics – traits such as creativity? This is a question that Kate Forsyth […]