Autumn Comes to The Antipodies - a time for reflection
The clocks have gone back and the evenings are drawing in, the leaves on the deciduous trees are colouring up and the mornings are often misty…to me there is something decidedly melancholy about bidding goodbye to another summer…a feeling I suspect is universal, after all Native Americans measured their age in summers.
Autumn is also a time for reflection, what have I achieved in the past year and where do I go from here…
Writing-wise it has been a productive year with two new books hitting the stores … last spring The Farmer Takes a Wife the third book in the trilogy The Mulleins of Katherine Bay hit the cyber-shelves and at the beginning of summer, just in time for Christmas Kayla’s Christmas joined the growing ranks of novels available…and before we took our summer holiday … Lovers’ Lies the first book in the new series Prodigal Sons was given a complete re-edit and a spivvy new cover…and this has reaped rewards in sales… and my new book The Return … the second book in the series Prodigal Sons is three quarters finished and Whitby or Me the third book in the trilogy is also mapped out… and hammering away at the back of my mind.
The other major event in my life is that I’ve begun carving out me time…and DH and I bought ourselves a luxury caravan and have enjoyed an extensive summer holiday touring around the North Island and catching up with friends and family. The weather co-operated and we’ve enjoyed an endless summer…with April temperatures setting record highs…not so good for the farmers who are desperate for rain.
ThamesCoast didn’t end well. I went with our granddaughter gathering mussels off the rocks and slipped and fell, breaking two bones in my left wrist…it was such a silly accident as I know better than to clamber around rocks wearing sandals…oh well there’s no fool like an old fool!!!!
The good news about this is that I am well ahead in my autumn clean-up in the garden as it’s hard to accomplish much with one arm in a plaster cast…
So on the technology front, I am about to embark on using voice recognition technology to help me keep writing… and I get the feeling that’s going to create subject matter for a whole new blog post…
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Published on Thursday, April 10th, 2014, under Latest News
Hi Shirley
Up here, the leaves are softening in their green, but still not true autumn colors. The air is definitely cooler, but still warm enough for summer clothes.
Hope your arm heals soon
Jane
Jane
thanks for stopping by… I love autumn it’s one of my fav times of the year and we need much colder weather than this to really colour the autumn leaves and much more rain and then maybe field mushrooms.
Have to say, you’ve had a very productive year! Isn’t that a lovely idea, measuring your life in summers? How appealing. Still warm here with beautiful days but the last couple of nights have been cooler. There’s a hint of Autumn in the air and I love it!
Thanks for stopping by Susanne
I too, love the idea of measuring life in summers…it is an aspect of the Native American culture I like, so life affirming. We have been having record April Temperatures here…reached 32 deg C a few days ago, unheard of in Summer let alone April! But the past few nights have been blessedly cooler.
No - no more rain needed! It’s so soggy in Wellington now that it will last us for weeks. Wet leaves stuck over everything.
Shirley - I hope your wrist isn’t too horribly painful, and good luck with Dragon. Have to say I feel a total fool trying to dictate my books - but you know my books! Best not spoken out loud.
Kris
Thanks for stopping by…we have rain, lovely soaking rain, great for the gardens and the farmers are desperate for it. My wrist isn’t too painful and I’m trying out dragon…not sure how I’ll cope with speaking my books aloud…too funny!
You’ve had a big year, Shirley. Congratulations on your new releases.
I’m clinging to the last of summer. I’d much rather live on the equator. It is turning cold and wet here in Sydney.
I hope your arm heals soon.
Best wishes,
Hayson
Hayson,
Thanks for stopping by…I know the feeling I always feel melancholy to see the end of summer, but then along comes spring.