Heading out on my early morning walk today, I checked the mail box and found an envelope from Amazon in there. Greedily ripping it open, I almost lost the folded contents to the brisk wind. . . it was a ROYALTY CHEQUE for the kindle version of my Scottish adventure ‘Following Claire’. Not a whopping amount, but enough to perk me up considerably and the excitement well in excess of the event. This money means so much more to me than larger sums paid for temp work recently. The fact that I can write something that anyone wants to pay to read, is a thrill I only get out of selling my art – and I’ve only just started doing that again. There just something about doing something you enjoy, with your own hands, and getting money for doing it, that cannot be replicated in the usual treadmill of administration and clerical work I have done.

So, with that extra spring in my step, I headed off on the ‘hill walk’ up toward the big pylon at the city end of the Peninsula. It’s a change from the usual scenery, and is all meadow and pony club, with the odd rabbit thrown in. The flax flowers are all coming out, and all the bushes that were white are being superceded by the vivid red of Pohutukawa and flax. The tuis must be going wild on the flax nectar right now.

My Christmas this year is going to be humble and simple: presents are homemade or baked. Last night I sat and cobbled together what I thought would be possums, but as I sewed they changed to foxes, and finally became mice. Still, I think they’re fairly successful. I hope no one receiving one, is reading this now.