I have been here – I have just been working. 🙂 Last week I emailed off my latest book to my editor at HarperCollins, Steph Smith, and now I can get back to the garden.

The book, The Devil’s Diadem, has been a life saver. It has given me something to do each day, something to look forward to, and I have loved every moment of writing it. I hated finishing it – so much so that I am now deep in planning for my next venture. It is almost as if the book has been a charmed talisman. Most of it I wrote while undergoing chemo – one week sick as a dog in bed, one week not so sick and sitting in front of the computer typing away as if my life depended on it, and trying to fit in all my medical appointments as well. As far as chemo goes, I am having a break for it for a while until the cancer springs back – no one knows how long that will be … but not long, unfortunately.

But, in the meantime, there is the garden. First a huge thank you to Paula Moss who arrived one day with cup cakes and a willing pair of hands and who toiled away in the woodland pruning and weeding for me. That was so wonderful – thanks again Paula. 🙂 Every time I go down to the woodland now I am amazed by how much Paula managed to get through.

I am slowly getting back into the garden myself. Doing a bit of weeding, a bit of clearing, a bit of digging (not much as I still find this very hard). Just little bits, here and there. But the little bits mount up. Yesterday I amazed myself by digging up six shrubs that had completely overgrown a brick path. The shrubs are still there, lying on the path – so today’s exercise will be to shift them to some infill and reclaim the path. Pruning and more pruning. Why did I plant so many robinias??

The vegie garden is still there although needs much work. I have leeks and beets, carrots and still some capsicum coming through (although the capsicums are soon for the next world). I also have some old-ish potatoes sitting under the car port . Every night the industrious rats come along and steal some potatoes and roll them about 5 metres to the rat hole to under the house. There the potatoes stay as the rats can’t get them through the hole. 🙂 It is good of the rats to point out to me so conveniently where their rat hole is so I can contemplate some rat extermination. Every morning, without fail, three potatoes exactly sitting about this hole where the rats have tried furiously to get them down. I have to admire their industry.

We have had virtually no rain at all this year. The garden is incredibly dry – last year was fantastic for rain. This year, ghastly.

Thank you again to everyone who replied to the Silence of the Dying post. The response has been amazing.

I apologise for not updating the blog more often. Sometimes everything gets too much and I just can’t cope with things – then I tend to go into hibernation.