Not the Tuesday Poem...

The sock lounges in Nelson, and a seal lounges outside Kaikoura. Seeing the seals was an unexpected highlight - we even saw three seal pups playing in some bushes. We're now at Little River, staying in a converted silo. It's been very thoughtfully fitted out - even the light switches are in keeping with the original use of the building. I wouldn't want to live in one fulltime, though - simply not enough space for all the books and other paraphenalia! 

Read Elizabeth Taylor's Palladian. It's only her second novel and I found it a little over-wrought, but very readable. It's a bit of a riff on the Jane Eyre - and interesting if only for that reason. I bought it at a secondhand bookshop that was closing down in Nelson. The building was being demolished and the owners, who had sold their house as well, were putting all their belongings in storage and heading off to South East Asia for six months. 

In knitting news, the sock grows, as does the new Lanesplitter skirt, which I'm making from Rowan Tapestry, a discontinued yarn. I'm very afraid this will end up pilling or felting a little - some of the balls are quite sticky, but I do like the colours so I guess I'll just get one of those little shavers and shave it from time to time. 

It would be great to get back to Australia with a nearly completed new skirt and half of a pair of socks! 

New Zealand

Have spent the last ten days in New Zealand - Wellington, Napier, Picton and now Nelson. Lots of busyness! Amazing to see how many secondhand bookshops are thriving here - counted (and visited!) four in Wellington alone. But what really blows me away is the craftwork.

So, I've been thinking a lot about craft and how, constant as it has been in my life, I don't really push any boundaries with it. I'm a jobbing knitter and sewer. This year I'd like to try to be more innovative. I'm already doing more spinning but that isn't quite enough. How to push further?

I've been thinking the same thing about poetry. How to push that further - what to do with it. One of the problems, I think, is that I'm no longer immersed in the poetry world. My world has become divided between writing novels, teaching and family - it's hard to add extra things into that mix and poetry is something that needs more immersion, more thought, more experimentation and more reading.

I acknowledge it's hard to do everything - but...

I want to!

The Year that Nearly Was, Christmas and the Year that Nearly Is.

It's been an odd kind of year. I've done far less writing than I usually do and I've missed it, but haven't seemed to be able to make the time or effort to do more than the odd poem here and there. There were considerable work problems that had to be overcome and now I wonder if that was all worth it as my contract wasn't renewed. The government funding cutbacks to TAFEs have been draconian and reprehensible.

On the other hand, I received an Australia Council grant to spend three months in Paris this coming June, which I'm incredibly excited about and, although I haven't been writing, I have been thinking about writing consistently. Of course,  I've also written a lot of lesson plans - but does that count? I also changed my approach to fantasy and began a fantasy verse novel that I'm enjoying, although I haven't been seriously working on it. I may well begin seriously working on it in the near future.

2012 in no particular order:

The Accountant and I went to New Zealand.
Star was published.
I lost nearly six weeks from the year by getting pleurisy.
The Accountant retired and has been super-busy ever since.
My eldest step-daughter moved back in with us, causing  a good spike in vegetarian cooking.
I knitted my first top-down cardigan, but it does need some fixing up.
The old dog got a little older.
I gave away nearly four bags of yarn stash - thanks to the Decluttering Fiend.
I had the best haircut I've ever had.
I cleaned up my study so it is far more user-friendly.
The street now has a regular Friday night knitting group. 
The Wish Pony came out as a Vintage Classic.
I have consolidated some friendships and made a very dear, new friend.
I was inked - and I'm still happy about that!

Resolutions, tui birds and more...

So, nearly every holiday I come home with resolutions - or thoughts on how to proceed more easily, calmly or imaginatively with my life. I guess this holiday has been no exception. I've been so impressed with the wonderful craft work I've seen in New Zealand, including that obviously made and directed at the tourist market, that it's made me doubly determined to get on with my own makings. And to use the unique natural world that surrounds me as inspiration. But enough of resolutions. Here's a Tui bird - I was so thrilled when I saw my first one. They are both handsome and comical.

I'd love to spend more time over here - it's a wonderful country. Next trip will be the South Island - where my great-grandmother lived and both my grandfather and mother were born.