Dragonsblood

This is the first novel set in the Pern world of Dragons by an author other than Anne McCaffrey. I love this world. I found it when searching for Christmas presents…

The author is Anne’s son Todd, whom she has collaborated on two Pern novels before.

It is set between times. At the end of the first pass and at the start of the third. In the future a disease is affecting the dragons of Pern so that they die within three weeks.

At first I thought this was going to be another - was it Dragon Flight - where a dragon rider goes back in time to rescue the future but Todd doesn’t fall into the trap.

I enjoyed it. Staying up into the wee smalls to read it curled up on a soft cozy sofa in a log cabin with the fire crackling before me. I think Todd captures the world well and progresses the storyline. Wind Blossom’s photophobic watchwhers are explained for instance.

And yes, I will be looking out for the next one.

Floodtide

Another saga by Judy Nunn - probably better known for her role on the Aussie soap “Home and Away”, of which, I confess, I am not a fan.

Her books are long and rambling and set in Australia, and that is why I picked this one up. That, and it landed on my desk as a review copy just before a 17 hour flight. In fact, this one is set in Western Australia and covers the period of WA Inc so it held a certain reminiscent appeal.

This is not high literature, but it is moderately entertaining if slightly unbelievable. The Mayjay bit??

Mohawk Mountain

If you’re a gung-ho skier, Mohawk Mountain probably doesn’t hold much attraction for you but if you have a family and just want a day or two skiing. It’s perfect.

*grrr I’m so frustrated not to be able to show you pics yet*

There are about 7 runs, a couple black - although they were more like blues in Australia and the snow was newly made and the weather fine and clear. The forest is deciduous, which was different. I’m used to the snowgums at home. In Whistler there are pines everywhere and in Europe - a lot of bare open mountaintops with few trees. (this sounds like a lot of skiing but it is sprinkled over a lot of years… I’m an old chook you know!)

We booked the kids into a semi-private lesson having missed the group one and headed up to the summit. Our first run was black - which sounds extreme - but skiing is like riding a bike - your body remembers - and the blacks weren’t that challenging - about perfect level for me!

At lunchtime we collected the small fry and practiced for a while on the greens before proposing an adventure! I could not believe that these kids who have skied so few times - The Orchid Hunter only once before when he was 4 - were so brave. They hurtled down the hill in their snowplows! I only wish we were staying longer as I’m sure they would pick up parallel turns quickly.

The mountain was open until 6pm. It gets full dark at about 4.30 and as the light dimmed the whole mountain lit up as if covered in fairy lights. It was beautiful.

We may never want to leave.

But we have plans. We’re considering Times Square for New Year’s Eve - although that feels like a massive undertaking - and then we want to drive down the east coast to Florida and perhaps Disneyworld!

Or until the money runs out!

At last! An Aussie blogging forum

Thanks to Meg, Snos and Andrew we now have access to a forum where we can share, discuss and learn ways to blog better. Already I have learned so much and I’ve barely had time to brush the surface.

One of the lovely features is the Coffee Lounge - I love the name - where you can meet folk online and even arrange face-to-face meetings. I think there are already embryonic plans for catch-ups in Sydney and Melbourne.

There is also lots of help for bloggers of all stripes - be it Wordpress, Blogger or well whatever - so if you have some expertise or are looking for some help - head on over.

In the very short time it has been running the community has grown amazingly. Here are the latest stats:

Total Posts: 1366
Total Topics: 215
Online Today: 55
Online Ever: 275
(December 30, 2007, 10:53:47 PM)

How cool is that?

I hope to see you there.

In snowy Goshen snug in a cabin

Today you find me on a rickety table in my sister’s bedroom at her holiday cabin in Goshen. The cabin is in fact a three story log house with stone fireplaces and rustic furniture. The snow is about a foot deep and the lake, just in front of the cabin is frozen. Or at least, mostly frozen. I’m sure I heard it crack when Junior Poshi stepped out onto it earlier today.

The virus that laid the Orchid Hunter low hit little Tee (my four year old nephew), my mum (should I say Mom now I’m here in the states?) and Junior Poshi. JP seems to have shaken it off in a couple of days but has been forced to take it easy. In the meantime The OH, Groover and I decided to take a little time-out from the mass family gathering for a side trip to the Hamptons. You may have heard of The Hamptons? That’s the beachfront hangout of the rich and the very rich on the east coast of Long Island.

The houses there are not shacks. Sleeping 20 people easily seems to be the standard and their perfectly manacured eight foot hedges hide perfectly manacured lawns and driveways that would give you a good workout should you choose to forgo the tennis court or 25 m pool for a casual stroll to the front gate and back.

We walked along the beach at Southampton, collecting pebbles Something’s Gotta Give style and cursing the icy wind off the Atlantic.

Overnight we stayed at The Huntting Inn in East Hampton, a charming oldy worldy English style Inn with all the American mod cons. Cable.

It was there, lying in the white cotton of our king-sized bed we heard the news of Benizir Bhutto’s assassination. Both of us sitting bolt upright and audibly gasping. It is immensly powerful hearing news as it happens. From “she’s okay”, to “her husband says she’s been shot in the neck and is being operated on” to “we have just heard that she is dead”. From then on the Christmas Day Tiger killing was not referred to as the wall-to-wall CNN coverage in Pakistan ramped up to a new level.

In the morning we drove up to Montauk, right at the tip of Long Island and joined a group of keen birdwatchers. They come several times a year to look for petrels and other sea loving birds and one kindly let us look through her very - it must be said - impressive telescope.

Then we drove to Port Jefferson to catch a ferry to the mainland for the trek up to Goshen.

Caught in the act: Elves expose Santa!

See what happens when you leave your camera out on Christmas Eve. We reckon a naughty elf must have taken these photos, found on Christmas morning…

A small uggy concern

I noticed today that three out of ten searches that found my website had “ugg” in the search words. A worry?

Kelley will say: Serves me right! I shouldn’t wear ugg boots! ;)

The Curse of the Willy Willy - The Play

I performed in the second Christmas play last night. The Curse of the Willy Willy. “Written” by my niece and daughter this play revolved around an evil Willy Willy (Aboriginal word for whirlwind) played by Junior Poshi, who steals the three stones of Happiness, Easy Going and Lovability. Our hero - The Pink and Grey Galah (played by my niece - Bear) and her companion Mrs Pumpkinhead (yes I was Mrs Pumpkinhead) travel to the castle in the sky where the Wise Wanjina (played by my mum) lives.

The Wanjina tells us where to find the stones. The stone of Happiness was in the Cliffs of the Grey Fields and we found it by finding out where we felt happiest, the stone of Easy Going was in Deep River and we found it by “Going with the flow”, the stone of Lovability was in the Dragon’s cave (the Dragon and Narrator played by the Orchid Hunter) and is recovered by us telling the dragon we love him.

I say wrote because once the concept was down we kind of made it up as we went along.

The highlight for the audience was the face paint. Observe:

Well, our audience thought it was funny… :)

Snowing in Connecticut

While the other cousins have been sledding at Cranberry Hill nearly every day, my poor Orchid Hunter has been stuck inside feeling lousy. So when perchance we happened to notice it snowing outside yesterday we threw on as many clothes as possible and went outside!

Stew Lennards - the shopping experience

So we went to the shop with the singing banana.

And it was overwhelming in its American-ness! Apparently this is quite a famous store. The best thing IMHO was the Santa out the front with a REAL BEARD. Very impressive. The singing banana was okay too and the cow is called “Clover”.

Just in case you have any last minute shopping to do they keep the shops open til midnight. So last night at about nine my sister and I went shopping because - you guessed it - my Christmas shopping aint done yet - it’s okay - only the hard ones to get…

Mostly I went because I wanted to hang out with my sis. It’s a big ask having your whole family over to stay, over Christmas, when you’re in the middle of a very full on Montessori teaching course in another state.

Plus Americans take gift giving at Christmas - or at least my sister does - very seriously.

All gifts need a card - not just a gift tag. These are for presents that don’t go straight under the tree. You give presents to just about anyone who you have anything to do with you over the year. Yes, that includes the drycleaner and the postman. And of course the extended family, and in this case the extended family’s cleaner! It makes for rather stressful shopping especially when you’ve been working hard at your course.

She travels to Baltimore every Sunday night. Goes to lectures from 8 until 3 every day, then does about 6 hours of homework every night. Comes home late Friday night or Saturday morning. Does the full-on family thing for two days. No wonder she does a lot of shopping on the internet!

My sis is pretty amazing.

The course thankfully is only 9 months long and at the end, she’ll be a qualified Montessori teacher. Her plan is to home-school her kids. As she already has a teaching degree, she will be the best qualified home school teacher you will find! Long-term, she wants to set up her own school I think based on the Montessori method.

As I said she is impressive.

I’m helping in my own little way by colouring in some of her many materials. When I’m not shopping. Or blogging. :)

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