NQ Roadshow...

Phew... it's been a big week, but I'm pleased to report that our Roadshow was deemed a fabulous success by all involved. I couldn't begin to give a blow by blow account of the workshops, so instead let me show you pics. First -- the wonderful table of prizes organized by our group's fabulous members Shannean Moncrieff and Mervet Mcclintock. (the table is graced by a scarf I brought back from Italy. :)

 And here's a shot of the room. On the floor you can see the goody bags, again stuffed with fab surprises by Shannean and Mervet.

 Our speakers were the amazing Anne Gracie (left) and  brilliant Kelly Hunter (right, in those boots!!!) as well as our local stalents, Helene Young and myself.


Here's a shot of Helene with Bernadette Rowley from Townsville, who was our illustrious MC.

This is Shannean and her crew, who ran lucky seat prizes and a raffle that raised over $500 for the Royal Flying doctors.

And these serious faces show how thought provoking the speakers were. Havva Murat, our hard-working registrar is in blue in the middle.

And then, of course, after all the hard work, there was a dinner at night where Anne Gracie flirted with Helene's husband, Graham.

And here's our lovely, fabulous group --
Back row: Helene Young, me, Havva Murat, Alice Honsa, Shannean Moncrieff, Noreen Allan
Front Row: Beeca Quinn, Mervet McClintock, Bernadette Rowley and Lilian Begelnole. My new dream is to see everyone of this wonderful writers published!!
  Thank you, everyone!

Three little visitors...

And their parents came to "Nan and Pappy's farm" for the weekend...

They helped Pappy dig worms to feed the baby guinea fowl.

And they toasted marshmallows in the fire.

They enjoyed splashing in the new bathroom, running around in the dark with glowsticks... eating huge helpings of bacon and macaroni casserole and drawing a beautiful portrait of Nan and Pappy.

An eHarlequin Discovery...

A Google Alert aroused my curiosity and sent me to eHarlequin where I discovered that a book from my backlist, The Pregnancy Discovery, is being re-released in June 2011.

I wrote this book in 2000 while I was living on Magnetic Island. As it's not listed on amazon, I'm assuming that this is for the NA Reader Service -- a direct mail only release, and it won't be on the retail shelves, so I'm very pleased to see that it's available at eHarlequin.
I was always disappointed that this book had not been available in America as it has my one and only American hero, Sam Kirby, and it has sold very well everywhere else in the world. This is a message in a bottle story and I'm rather fond of it for lots of reasons, and I hope it finds some happy American readers. Check it out and read an excerpt here.

And Jupiter aligns with Mars...

We've had such incredibly clear, crisp, beautiful weather recently that it's been a crime to stay indoors. On Friday morning we got up at five thirty (only 5 degrees C and that's incredibly cold for us in May) and saw the four planets -- Venus, Jupiter, Mercury and Mars aligned in the eastern sky for the first time since 1910. As an added bonus, we saw the sun rise over Mt Bartle Frere, Queensland's highest mountain. Just gorgeous.

In this photo you can only seen two of the planets - Venus and Jupiter, I believe. If you click on it to make it larger, you should also see Mercury, a smaller planet off to the right. Red Mars was there too, below these, but he didn't show up in the photo -- because of the sunrise, I guess.

After breakfast, we drove over to Mareeba to collect turf from Barron River lawns. We want to start lawn regrowing, now that the plumber has finished his earthworks, but I'm so mad that I didn't take my camera. It was the start of the Mareeba to Chillagoe wheelbarrow race and we drove through Mareeba just as the procession of Wheelbarrow Teams started. It was a fabulous atmosphere with teams from high schools and businesses and charities, as well as the police. They were dressed up too -- as the Flintstones, as bumblebees, as rock stars. great fun and a great money raising event. All of Mareeba were on the streets to wave them on, including all the school children.

The teams have had two cold nights camping out on the road and they won't reach Chillagoe till today, so it's been quite an adventure. Meanwhile, for me, it's time to get my head down again.

But the sky's clouding over, so that's OK. :))

Why they call this the Misty Mountains...

Views from Cloud Cottage at 6.30 am

Nostalgia reigns...

Last week, I mentioned my little sister's birth on the day the Queen came to Sydney. Here she is in my mother's arms. Shortly after this, we moved to Brisbane (as my bio, which I can never get M&B to change, states). This was a very pioneering step for my parents, as their entire Australian families were in Sydney. Dad went ahead to find accommodation etc. and this is the photo he took with him. It was taken at my grandmother's house in Penshurst, and we moved to Brisbane shortly after Mother's Day. Nine months later I started school. Yes, Grade One, while I was still only four!!! Which is how I ended up as a high school teacher, teaching Yr 11 before my ninteenth birthday.

Surely the way to a mother's heart....