Antarctica – An Expedition to the End of the Earth.

Part one First things first - we had to prepare for the clothes and other items we needed, and of course book flights so we could get there! "There's no such thing as bad weather. Just inappropriate clothing." Ken Shoemaker - ever so wise husband My husband, Ken, and I set off on our journey …

Recipes and Life – A Memoir

My mum always cooked a traditional roast dinner on Sundays. Dinner, usually eaten in the evenings by our family mid-week, was moved to lunch time on Sundays. Sunday Lunch, even to me as a small child, felt unlike mid-week meals which seemed more like food put in front of us to nourish the body. Without the words to describe the feeling of Sunday Lunch, even as a six or seven year old, I knew this food, this meal, was more than just about nurturing our bodies.

Undertaking Research

Dear friends, I was delighted to wake up this morning in my hospital bed to see that a short piece I wrote on writing research has been published in the Brevity Blog. If you like this piece, please repost it, retweet it, or do anything you can in the name of literary citizenship to help …

Challenges, Writing and Otherwise.

Writing and shaping a memoir is complicated. Not only does the writer have to deal with the structural aspects of putting a memoir together, but our emotions sometimes cloud our way.

Audio recording – Forever and Ever

Recently, during my time at the Keyon Review Writer's Workshop, I did a reading of a short piece I wrote during my week at Kenyon. All of us students read from work we had created during that week. This is my first experiment posting a reading to my blog. Please excuse the crude editing. I …

Dear Teddy

Tuesday – Continuing with the Epistolary experiment Dear Teddy, We are both getting old. I celebrated 56 years of my life last week, and I celebrated 55 and a half years of your life same day. I am told Santa Claus brought you down the slim chimney of my parent’s first house on my first …

Dear Rattlesnake

You were not what I expected, when I left my home in London and moved to California. Snakes like you do not slither-slide side after side along the underground tracks among the rats.

Light and Shadows

My husband, Ken, and I spent last Christmas in Wales with our daughter and my best friend and her family. We loved every minute of our time with our “chosen family.” Two days after Christmas Ken and I set off on our drive back to London. Ken was to head home and I was to …

I am Green

There were too many people from tour buses wandering through the rain forest on the twenty minutes of exploration time allowed for on our itinerary for me to fully indulge my senses amongst the verdant vegetation. I'd like to have plunged my face into the silky wild grasses whispering in the wind. I'd like to …

Of Myths and Legends, Story and Magnificence

Belinda at Fox GlacierWe have travelled through volcanic owned landscapes. We have marveled at mountains rising from seemingly bottomless glacial rivers and lakes into a never-ending sky. The New Zealanders, original and immigrants, clearly took the time to consider the beauty before them before naming mountain ranges, lakes, glaciers and towns with names like "The …