* I once had a poet friend** who would start a new writing project on the spring equinox, without fail, every year. Winter was her fallow period; summer was all golden phrases and Fremantle sunsets. If I were able to write to my natural writerly inner clock, I'd probably be the same. Now, I take time wherever I get it: insomniac mornings, blustery weekends, in my head while swimming laps or sweating on the cross trainer. It has occurred to me lately that I've got used to this compression of time. Which doesn't, as I've said before, make it easier not to have big chunks of days or weeks in which to write: I have a big project I am itching to begin but cannot until I know I have guaranteed space to complete it. But I'm learning how to cut my suit to fit the cloth. There is something joyful in this, and I'm enjoying writing more than I have in years. I'm not doing anything ambitious or groundbreaking (right at this moment) - I'm having fun. And who knows what the equinox might bring?
* I've tried to comment on the nice comments y'all left after my last post, but Blogger says I'm not authorised to access my account (I know!) Anyway, what I tried to say was, thank you, and I will let you know if there's a launch. My daughter was going to do the honours but she's gone all mid-teen self-conscious on me. Kids these days, pffft.
* I've been madly harvesting and cooking the last of the winter greens: kale, spinach, silverbeet. The broad beans are flowering promisingly but holding back the pods (probably it's too early), but the onions and garlic are fattening nicely. For the first time I've planted flowers that aren't bulbs: I have little pots full of purple pansies.
* The spring equinox hosts my birthday, and my birthday resolution for this year is to find new and creative ways of being naughty (as opposed to being bad, you understand). A former friend** once said that the older you get, the harder it is to be naughty. I'm bound and determined to buck this trend, but in case my imagination fails me, please feel free to let me know any naughtiness I can lawfully indulge in at my advancing age. Also, am I the only one who has birthday resolutions?
* In the shopping centre yesterday I saw two of the girls I met over the summer while researching my junior novel. Which I took as the universe's way of saying, get on with it. So I am.
**Well, she probably is still my friend - I just haven't seen her for an age: such are the perils of day job plus writing plus family plus plus plus ... JTK, if you're out there, hello!
***Who also might still be a friend: see above.
