This gorgeous fantail found its way through my kitchen door, up the stairs and into my daughter’s bedroom. She loves nature and was enchanted by our little visitor. We often have birds coming into our home, living surrounded by trees and native bush, but they usually stay in the living room and don’t venture as […]
Writing
Autumn mushroom #NaPoWriMo
MUSHROOM On the edge of the forest path, defiant to the shortening day, the fungi’s startling colour stood, bold red, with white spots, under which a fairy ought to play. It stood in stark contrast to the greens and browns, tree roots, rotting leaves and muddy ditches. Autumn could not be ignored and the mushroom warned not to […]
After the Wellington winds, the stillness… a poem
Wellington is known for its wind and it’s something that I have a love / hate relationship with. It can make me feel alive and refreshed, or knocked down and eroded like a well worn cliff-face. It takes stamina to live in Wellington and a mental strength that I don’t always have. Before we had […]
A poem | A Bold Symphony of the Waves
The bold waves – Rolling in like drums; a crashing symphony. The conductor awash, on a horizon without form. Each new set of waves a contrast, of crescendos and diminuendos. Pounding ashore, breaking all defences, taking everything boldly for a ride, dumping it on the final crash. Spectators watch on, with anticipation and awe, captivated at […]
Prose for Thought | Gliding in with the Fall
Autumn in Santa Barbara is not like any autumn I’ve ever experienced. It feels like summer, minus the long, light evenings. But there is still a change in the air, however slight it may seem to this British born lass, used to living in windy Wellington, New Zealand, for well over a decade! There are […]
Prose for Thought
This week my ‘Prose for Thought’ contribution is derived from trying to settle two of my children into a new school, in a new country. Progress is slow and painful. My husband and I feel like we’re going through the early weeks with our first child all over again – such is the extent of […]
Prose for Thought | First Touch of the Pacific
It’s been just over a week since we landed in L.A. We are settling in, doing all the usual necessities of any new expat; setting up bank accounts, getting ourselves some wheels, getting to know the money, the shops, the food and become accustomed to the climate (which, as we already anticipated, is very favourable). […]
Prose for Thought | In Transition – Preparing for an international move (whilst the ground shakes beneath us!)
It’s pretty crazy in beautiful New Zealand right now. We’ve had some big wobbles in the shaky isles, which have been rather unnerving – but that goes with the territory here! This map, from GeoNet, shows all the quakes from Friday 21 July up until earlier today (Tuesday)… Pretty crazy amount of activity. We live […]
Prose for Thought | Life’s Flow
I enjoyed a beautiful run as the sun set over the Cook Strait, between New Zealand’s north and south island. It was a perfect winter’s evening, with just enough of a breeze to support me in finding my breath and driving my step. It was the kind of evening that cannot be passed by without […]
Write to Read iPad App – Perfect for recording those special memories
I was delighted to be asked to review a ground-breaking new iPad app, which has just launched on the App Store in the UK, called WriteReader. It is aimed at 3 to 10 year olds (and I have three children in that age bracket!). My children are absolute technology lovers, which I am okay with […]
Prose for Thought – The greenstone that seeded my love for New Zealand
Before I ever laid a foot in Aotearoa (New Zealand) I received the gift of a pounamu (greenstone) necklace, beautifully carved in the eternity symbol, from my boyfriend who had left England to take up a job in Aotearoa. The year was 1996 and I had planned to join him in February 1997, on a […]
Prose for Thought – After the Longest Night
Ten years ago I was labouring long and hard to bring my first born daughter into the world. This is a poem I wrote a couple of years ago, remembering her arrival into the world. ________________________________________________
The winter solstice storm that struck Wellington, June 2013 | A Poem
The past few days in Wellington have witnessed the destructive force of nature at a magnitude not seen in decades. Debris litters the south coast, with sand dunes and sea walls obliterated, trees torn from their roots, slabs of concrete cracked and moved like putty in a giant’s hands. Many thousands of people have been […]
Prose for Thought – If the rain could wash his pain away…
A poem for anyone who knows someone far away, who you wish you could help in some small way xx ________________________________________________