Writing in a harsh winter

…saturation …water runs in rills unable to find even a dust mote to sink into, so wet is the ground …high winds …freezing rain and still no snow …hoar frosts have covered the ground every morning for the last week and it was an amazing sight to actually see it creep in under cover, deposited by the mist; then the sun broke through!

…winter came in suddenly with a ‘boots and all’ entry …no tiptoeing around this year. Harvest is done, all but the greenhouse where the brassica reigns supreme …thank goodness, we need all the green food we can get this year …at least the chookhens are laying and the potatoes don’t mind the rain! 6 new girls, rescued from the battery farms have settled in well after just a couple of weeks.

…small robins and wrens have made there appearances and the Little Jacky Winters are back and they begin the nesting site battles again …some things never change!

…it’s the perfect time of year for me to write …sequestered away in my warm, cosy space, occasionally watching the birds or taking a stroll with the wildling terrier Pip but with just a few thousand words to go, Silver’s Threads Book 3, Warp and Weft will be birthed.

…from my little corner of the world I love to sit, in between creative spurts, to watch the wildlife as they interact …this little lady (wombat pic) is our resident wombat, black and glossy, she’s healthy and quite tame as wombats go …so funny to come home to two dogs and a wombat waiting at the gate and a cat on the fence post …I don’t know why she’s so friendly, its unusual behaviour for sure!

…as I write, a gaggle of male Rosella sit in the birch grove, observing the females as they raid the potato patch. They love to dig around and find the little ones that haven’t grown or have become waterlogged …the male’s behaviour reminds me of school dances, when the boys would sit chewing their finger nails and scuffing their feet; feigning disinterest, while the girls flitted around the dance floor. They observe but are shy to interact and the females are not always encouraging …then there’s a moment when two connect and leave the flock for the mating season…

Our Raven have returned …every year without fail they come for their courtship dance, reminding me a little of Bower Birds as the male displays his tail feathers and tempts the female with a stick or a feather stolen from the chook yard …’Look how I can provide for you,’ he mutters in his guttural tongue as she pretends indifference …looking bored as she cleans her claws or preens her feathers. She is distinctive as she carries a bar of silvery-white on her left wing but near impossible to photograph …I’ll keep trying though!

…winter is harsh this week …driving rain and high winds so forced inside to work, finally the editing is finished and Book 3 can find its way to the light of day. Deeply involved with finding the threads, in fact not missing any, is probably more the point; a new theme and new characters began to emerge… I think I’ve got my work cut out for me… but now it’s snowing so it’s boots on for a *snow dance* …snow brings out the child in me …may that never change

…blessings to all …Penny