North Germany, Schleswig-Holstein
A Postcard from Steilküste Schwedeneck
There is a place up here where the trees have caught the wind, trapped it in their trunks. It isn’t easy to catch the wind and hold it – it’s… Continue Reading
Now I Climb Rocks – Available for Purchase!
It isn’t a huge book, numbering only 140 pages. It feels, having finished it, both compact and full. It picks up, almost, where Heimat left off but deals with very… Continue Reading
Fires & Floods
When we booked our tickets for this trip, the fires had just started. As September rolled into October, family marked themselves safe on Facebook, and the Australian media began rolling… Continue Reading
Now I Climb Rocks
‘I found something rather unexpected as I peeled back the layers and peered at what pulsed beneath. I thought my foreignness was the ink in the water, but that wasn’t… Continue Reading
The Bones
I wrote this before the fires began, before the wolf came, as promised, to our door. * We will give our children the bones The bad bones, hollow, poorly formed…. Continue Reading
Still Here
Phew, it has been a minute. October seemed to barge in and suddenly we were knee deep in leaves and soggy grey mornings. Not warm, not cold, just eleven degrees… Continue Reading
Strawberry Plants
Strawberry plants throw out arms, long skinny things that carry a brave little cluster of leaves, sent out to try somewhere new, to another, nearby location, where it can then… Continue Reading
On Writing
I have been writing, in amongst the daily mess of kids and a household and work. I know it doesn’t seem like it, but I have been. The collection of essays… Continue Reading
Established
A few weeks after we moved into our new house, my parents came to visit. The boxes had been unpacked and the rooms set up – for now – and… Continue Reading
Eingewöhnung
I spent the first fortnight of this month in kindergarten. The first week, I was there Monday to Friday from 8.30 until around 11am, the second week until 1pm. The… Continue Reading
Not Frail, but Stubborn
There are days in April when the sky stands over you and empties herself of winter. Sleet, rain, hail, gusts of ungodly wind. All of it comes out in bursts… Continue Reading
What If You Don’t Like the Earth?
My four-year-old daughter, after a lengthy interest in pregnancy and birth, has now turned her considerable attention to death. I thought I might have had a couple more years up… Continue Reading
Of Stories & Connections
One of my house plants – they all survived – has brand new, bright green new shoots. My kids put their tracksuit pants on, and all pairs they seem to… Continue Reading
Sharp Relief
Things I always notice when I’m back home in summer: how hot the carparks are, the sun bouncing off the asphalt and burning through the soles of your thongs. How… Continue Reading
Go for the Blankets
As the plane descended into Dubai – lights off, flight attendants strapped in and watching that no one put down a tray or reclined a chair – I reflected on… Continue Reading
Like Clockwork
Winter up here always waits until people are muttering about how mild and wet January is. By then, Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg have usually taken a battering and the northerners start… Continue Reading
On Lessons We Learn from Pets
The boy, of about nine, maybe ten, was crying. He ran around, face to the sky, searching the trees as the light faded, screaming, ‘Spikey’. His parents, flustered, hapless, helpless,… Continue Reading
Colette
I wrote this little essay for a project I created back in 2013, with long-time friend and fellow writer, Sandi. We asked a handful of really good Australian writers to… Continue Reading
One More Sleep
I thought I was very organised this year, when I started putting together little gift parcels for Australian family in November. How merrily I selected little chocolates and decorations, how… Continue Reading
German Culture, Travel: Germany
The Cast of Christmas
I was most surprised, when I spent my first Christmas with the northerner I’d eventually marry, to find out that in the glorious Schleswig-Holstein, children get visited by der Weichnachtsmann. Quite literally,… Continue Reading