2022 A Wrap on My Almost Lost Year

Not All Is Lost

A couple of years ago, after discovering a website that hosted guests, I expanded Wattletales, initially my author page, to hear more about other people’s creative journeys. At first, I asked close friends to contribute to my blog as guests. When that proved successful, I found the confidence to invite others whose stories I fancied reading, and Wattletales is now a growing showcase of Adelaide’s artists, writers and poets, and I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

An Invitation

If, on reading this post, you are interested in including your creative story in the Wattletales creative showcase, please message me on Facebook or email me at lindy@wattletales.com.au.

2022 Guest Roundup

Four of my five guests this year — Steve Bell, Warren Porter, Susan Thrun Willett and Roger Rees — are from Sand Writers, a Goolwa-based writing group I enjoyed immensely as a member for a few years. Academic, artist and author Kathryn Pentecost, who hosts the South Coast Writers and Friends Facebook group, recommended Jade Wyatt.

February

Our first guest this year was renowned mountaineer, now writer and public speaker Steve Bell. In his remarkable piece, Reaching for the Highest Fruit, Steve describes the perils and rewards of climbing to the highest points on our planet, the dangers and deprivations of which ‘open the mind to regions inaccessible in everyday life.’ Always a reader and good at English at school, Steve’s new adventure is writing, which he describes as a challenge similar to climbing.

March

In his first article on Wattletales in 2021, Heading Out Along the Line, Warren told a story about finding a job in his youth as a fettler on the Trans-Australia railway line that crosses the Nullarbor. While the fettler story is a slice of almost-forgotten social history, Warren’s 2022 contribution, Blood on Their Hands, offers profound insight into the violence he experienced in state-run institutions as a child. It is a harrowing but necessary read, but Warren writes to help things change.

June

In her poignant tale, The Free Pom, Susan Thrun Willett, evokes the poverty into which she was born in the UK before her parents migrated to Australia as Ten Pound Poms. Susan was only five, so she travelled for free, but her story shows she also has a free spirit. After putting herself through university, Susan became a teacher and deputy principal, teaching literature and language. She later taught English as a Second Language in the UK, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and China. Now, she is exploring her creative writing seriously.

August (a)

The Scent of Hope by Jane Wyatt (aka Elizabeth Snow) is a delicate story that starts with the ‘unashamedly ostentatious nature of lilies’. Their scent, she tells us, fills her with hope. Jane finds inspiration in flowers and words, which she describes as magic, and in her children and family. Jane’s prose is as poetic as her poetry, and any attempt to capture its beauty here is bound to fail but leaves us with the message that ‘hope is where flowers bloom’. 

August (b)

My last guest for 2022 was Flinders University Emeritus Professor and multi-talented sailor, musician and writer Roger Rees, who talks of science and creativity in People and Their Lives are Fascinating. Roger is a riveting writer of what I think of as literary portraits. In prose and poetry, he praises others for their achievements, personal courage, and creative contributions to life. Roger’s energy and original thinking are inspirational; as a pioneer in his field, he has shown how creativity contributes to healing.

A Memorable Year

Despite losing creative time doing ‘business’, this year has been one of the most satisfying of my life, almost up there with being blessed with three children. At Wattletales Publishing, I saw my first novel, The Publican’s Daughter, and my first book-length poetry collection, A Curious Mix in Free Verse, in print. Both books are in the South Australia public libraries catalogue.

Jude Aquilina launched both books with Nigel Ford as MC at the Elatte Café and Restaurant in Glenelg. I thank Rade and the Elatte staff for looking after us so well on busy Saturday afternoons on both occasions.

Meeting Steve Parish

This year, I also had the distinct honour of being invited by acclaimed nature photographer Steve Parish to write about how the Australian landscape enters my writing. You can read what I wrote on Steve’s brilliant web page, Inspiring Nature Connection, which holds an encyclopaedic visual collection of Australian landscapes, flora and fauna.

Steve used this image of the Cawnpore Lookout in Queensland as the feature photo for my story. I fell so in love with it I followed up with a post entitled, Photos & Words — Is Their Creative Contrivance Numinous? Using Steve’s generously shared photographs, I asked what it is about images, be they art and photos or words in narrative and poetry, that is moving. Why did this photo bring me to tears?

Image as Symbol

The short answer lay on the map Steve sent me, pinpointing where Cawnpore Lookout is. It is at the heart of all the places in Queensland where I’ve been lucky enough to work with First Nations people, from the Cape of Carpentaria in the far north to Mount Isa, Cloncurry and Julia Creek and further south, past Boulia and the Cawnpore Lookout, to Eromanga, Quilpie, Charleville and other places to the east.

But the image symbolises more for me. While working out from Windorah, from Dajarra in the north to Boulia and Bedourie in the south, I returned to my hotel room after being incommunicado out bush for three days to a message saying that my mother had died. The people I was working with knew that she was old and unwell, and I’ll never forget the solace one man offered when he said with great kindness, ‘That old girl couldn’t wait, hey?’

Special Posts

This year’s posts include two reflective pieces, one honouring a dear friend and another to commemorate the passing of Queen Elizabeth II.

A Recurring Wattletales Theme

While I wouldn’t usually cover all of my posts in a Wattletales annual roundup, I wanted to include those that covered issues in old age this year, as my most-read post on Independent Living did in 2021. As we all know, ageism is rife in today’s world, and it needs to be exposed, so I’ve included links to two new pieces that refer explicitly to the issue and two that explore what it means to have a long life.

This is Old Lady Speaking — Ageing Stripped Bare

Back then, I Grew Up in a Different World

Best Books from a Lifetime — A Big Ask

Serious Nonsense — On the Art of Being Uncomfortable

Forgive me if I finish with a poem I’ve posted before about having Christmas Dinner with my dear old dad in Adelaide’s War Veteran’s Home at Myrtlebank close to the end of his life.