Dear reader, where does the time go?

Last month I was privileged to be a part of the Big Sky festival in Geraldton. It was a peak life experience, of which fact I was aware at every moment. From travelling to the stunning Abrolhos Islands, with their history of mutineering and murder, guano-mining and crayfishing, to meeting warm, engaged audiences, re-visiting Geraldton schools and  meeting fabulous writing colleagues, it was delightful, fun, thought-provoking and occasionally terrifying (in the seven-seater plane). Trudi Cornish and her team did the most remarkable job putting it all together and making us all feel welcome and at home.

Charlotte Wood, Rachael Woods, Alison Lester, Jock Serong, me and Michael Leunig

At Big Sky, the remarkably eloquent Gideon Haigh spoke about A Scandal in Bohemia , which I am now engrossed in. It is an exploration of the life of talented and spirited Mollie Dean, who was murdered while walking home in Eltham, Melbourne in 1930. This week another murder in Melbourne, of talented and spirited Eurydice Dixon, has made reading this even sadder: the tragic loss of a talented young woman, again. On a personal level, apart from despairing and being furious about the danger of being a female, I am reminded of the rape and murder of my friend Carita Ridgway, and the way the sense of loss never goes away, only, at best, diminishes.

I leave you with something cheering, my daughter’s latest painting-in-progress: