Over the years John and I have done some moving around, always thinking the grass would be greener at the next location! We should have known. It isn’t necessarily so. That’s not to say we haven’t enjoyed the times we’ve spent elsewhere but, finally, last year, 2020, we realised our hearts were in Canberra. So we moved back, buying a property that filled our three main criteria: a big block, backing on to a nature trail with walking tracks, and one almighty amazing view.
I was born in Leicester, the midlands of England, and came to Australia with my family when as I was four. I had a wonderful childhood roaming the coastal wilds and beaches of Adelaide, ranging as far as my bike and legs would take me in a day. My mother soon learned not worry, saying she quickly realised my brother and I always returned home in time for dinner. I met and married John, the Gawler boy who made my toes curl when he kissed me, in 1967, and in 1980 we and our three children moved to Canberra, Australia’s national capital, where I worked with the Commonwealth Court Reporting Service, spending a lot of my time in the Supreme Court. Check out my Books page for the story behind A legal affair.
In 2004, after the kids had left home, John and I moved to the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. Much as we enjoyed the sun and living by the sea we missed the family, so returned to Canberra for several years until uprooting ourselves once again in 2016 to move back to South Australia. Opting for coastal wilds yet again we settled on Hindmarsh Island at the mouth of the mighty River Murray. Four years later, in 2020, we moved back to Canberra, realising it’s where our hearts are!
I may be a ring-in as an Aussie but the place has my heart and soul embedded deep in its soil. Hopefully this comes through in my novels – after you read them let me know, I’m always contactable through my Contacts page.
One of the things I’ve always enjoyed as a past-time is sewing and not long after we moved to Canberra I undertook a three year garment making course to hone my skills. Several of the outfits I’m most proud of making (in fact I look at photos of them now and think ‘Heavens, did I make that!’) were my two daughters’ wedding dresses and their children’s christening/naming day outfits.
In 1989 we took a three month trip to the UK, our first time back since both of us left as children. In the last 14 years we’ve returned there yearly because our daughter Simone lives in West Sussex. If you’re interested in make up have a look at her website—Simone Graham, make-up artist.
And because John and I were going so frequently, in 2013 we decided to do a foray further afield and did an 18 day walk across England (the famous Coast to Coast walk). Check out my posts about it on my Travel Tales blog. Covid, of course, has put paid to any trips outside of Australia for the foreseeable future.
You can view these photos individually with captions on the Photo Albums page.
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