Writing and Farewell Evan

Little Evan, the ginger and white kitten found a good home today.  A family, who seemed very nice, came to pick him up late this afternoon.  It's sad to say goodbye but I know Evan will forget his mum and his siblings soon and settle into his new home.  We put notices up in the pet shop, the supermarket and the vet's office but only had that one phone call so far.  I hope we find homes for the other two soon then we can concentrate on getting Harley spayed and later, Noah.

I started on my U3A course today proper.  I am writing my assignments in a pretty A4 notebook for now and will probably incorporate what I'm learning into my book. This Steinbeck quote was interesting to me.

"Don’t start by trying to make the book chronological. Just take a period. Then try to remember it so clearly that you can see things: what colors and how warm or cold and how you got there. Then try to remember people. And then just tell what happened. It is important to tell what people looked like, how they walked, what they wore, what they ate. Put it all in. Don’t try to organize it. And put in all the details you can remember. You will find that in a very short time things will begin coming back to you, you thought you had forgotten. Do it for very short periods at first but kind of think of it when you aren’t doing it. Don’t think back over what you have done. Don’t think of literary form. Let it get out as it wants to. Over tell it in the matter of detail — cutting comes later. The form will develop in the telling.”

I have discovered that for just a little extra, I can join a tutor led course that begins in October so I will be doing that and am looking forward to it.  The interaction with the other students will be good for me, as will feedback to my writing.

Phill and I have started taking Olive Leaf Extract. I am not a wimp about taking bad tasting  medicine/supplements but this stuff is awful.  The research says it has many health benefits so we're giving it a try.

I'm so sick of the cold.  My friend Peggy who lives up Upper Michigan in the US would laugh at me, they get such loooong Winters and feet of snow every year and even though she grew up there, she suffers every single Winter.  But this is a hot country, even though in some areas the weather gets very cold and even snows.  I seem to feel it more as I get older, Winters never bothered me when I was young.  But I'm sick of it alrerady and it's not even half over yet. 

We're hoping to be able to take the kids across to Canberra next week.  Julie wants Em to visit some art galleries and what better choice than the National Gallery?  They want to go to Questacon too, hope the $$$ stretch but we can do it as day trip I think, if we're organised and Phill is here to drive in the dark as I can't do that.

That's little Evan up there.  Hope he's happy and warm tonight.

We have tiny little growth stunted neighbours.  They both smoke ciggies like little tiny chimneys.  The kids' bedrooms are on the side of the house that faces their front porch, where they sit and smoke so we can never have those windows open.  They both work, but have a little dog who is neglected and lonely and barks almost incessantly.  I am so close to ringing the council but I don't want anything to happen to that little dog, it's not her fault.  It's very stressful though, and I just hope there are no elderly or infirm neighbours across the back lane where the dog does most of her barking.  They also have a cockatoo that they keep way, way down the back of a large yard in a corner and he imitates the dog.  Why do people have pets if they don't want them to be part of the family?  Anyway, my little darlings can be very noisy at times.  I am normally very considerate of neighbours and noise from us, as we've had some shocker neighbours in years past.  But I almost take pleasure in listening to the kids in Josh's bedroom yelling and making awful noise and hoping the little smokers can hear them.  Aren't I terrible?  And do I care?  Nope.