Year: 2020
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Turning our lives upside-down
A hand-built house It’s a big decision and I was going to be sensible about it. We were in Braidwood because I thought that booking a cheap backstreet Air BnB there for a couple of nights would give us the chance to see if the small country town suited us. I planned to stay in…
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What’s essential? Pandemic reading
Three outstanding books In the early days of the pandemic a contents box on the front page of a newspaper stated: ‘WHAT’S ESSENTIAL In France, wine In the US, guns.’ For me, it’s books. (Hmmmm, maybe the wine comes a close second.) Some people want to read books like Camus’ The Plague during this pandemic.…
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Gently altering the world – the arts
Returning from a writing residency in Cill Rialaig, in Ireland’s County Kerry – https://cillrialaigartscentre.com/residencies/ – it was weird to be back yet not be able to hop on my bike and see friends, go to tango lessons, films, cafés and libraries or walk around the lake. I watched that ingenious ABC program You Can’t Ask…
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Drinking the days: biographies and oysters
‘Set wide the window. Let me drink the day.’ American writer Edith Wharton (1862-1937) wrote that. I love it and would often think of it after opening the curtains first thing. But her words took on a tragic tone in the mornings after the bushfires began. We could no longer open windows. Canberra’s air quality…