The articles have been rolling out consistently over at A WANDERFUL LIFE, my books are still selling, the photos are selling through my agency, and life is good.

We left rural Victoria, went to Sydney for several weeks, spent 10 days in Amsterdam, 2 months in England, and since March we’ve been to Edinburgh, London, Rotterdam, Hannover, Berlin for a month, Dresden, Strasbourg, a tiny village in the Midi-Pyrenees of France, and currently we are in Normandy. Whew! That’s a lot of driving in our cute little Kia!

Our little blue Kia in Germany

But we’ve been pondering a bit of a pause — not to get ensconced in day-to-day living — but to create a little nest — a bolt-hole where we can go when we need a break from travelling. And perhaps it could be a place that generated a bit of income for us next year since France still seems to be quite a popular spot for British and German folks who wish to travel a shorter distance for a holiday than on a long-haul flight.

Those of you who have known us for years won’t be surprised at this, but we’ve begun to look at real estate in lovely French villages with tidy streets, pretty houses, good bakeries on the corner for those fresh pastries, and all of the necessary shops to make a holiday long-let rental home just the buzz.

Are we tired of travelling? To be truthful, some days we are tired. It’s hard to live out of a suitcase and maintain your enthusiasm every single week — so yes, there are peaks and valleys. And that’s to be expected.

Today we spent a full afternoon walking around the largest intact fortified medieval chateau in France and it was a splendid day out. I’m hoping the photos will be splendid and the article well worth reading once I get it posted.

But I’m way off schedule with the posts and photo uploads — about 2 months behind right now. And there are times when I know that what I need is a place to just hang my hat for a few months of the year while I get the work done and Mark reconstructs walls, rewires and replumbs, builds a new kitchen (gads — I DO MISS a proper kitchen!), then plasters and paints.

We’ll see — we’ll see. Just having a bit of a musing-about-the-future kind of day.

And hopefully it won’t be another whole 6 months before I post again on THIS particular blog!

I have Ebay listings for all of the furniture now, have (thankfully!) already sold several pieces, and tonight the ride-on tractor went to a very nice man who was the first person who viewed it. Note to self — take the flyer back OUT of the Notice Board in front of the newsagent tomorrow! Replace that flyer with another one with oh-so-pretty pictures of furniture!

Still have the cars to list, the refrigerator and washer, and then lots of office electronics like the fax machine, a desktop computer and printer, and then there is all of the night-time entertainment items like television and dvd-player and so forth. That’s at LEAST another 20 listings to write! And in the middle of everything, we are having a Garage Sale the 2nd to last weekend here. Whew! Anything that doesn’t sell will just have to get donated to charity because we are getting a tiny storage unit for the books and tools we are actually keeping.

Can’t believe how much I am looking forward to getting off to Sydney on the train because we have adorable friends who have offered us their apartments to stay in during the Christmas holiday while they are out of town. How good is that? If all goes to plan, we should have 10-14 days of wind-down time with NO hotel bills. And we’ll have another one of those quiet just-us-two holidays in an urban setting like we did in the loft apartment in Melbourne that I booked last year. We’re both going to need it by then!

We depart Australia on the 29th of December — but that’s a story for another time.

More in a few days. It might be after midnight, but I might just get ONE more ebay listing written up.

Something wonderful is unfolding and I am hoping to be able to announce it in the next 7 days.

Wouldn’t want to jinx it!

Back soon… (fingers crossed)

That wildly-improbable-yet-definitely-there creature has been reasonably reliable throughout my lifetime, but I think that the cracks in her wand were beginning to show quite awhile back. The entire magical object just gave way recently from the stress fractures that had built up over time.

So where am I going with all of this? I am redirecting your attention back to me.

Anyone who has ever read my books knows that my interests include discussions of various types of spirituality, consciousness studies, knowingness that is accessed through altered states, and paranormal or psychic topics. Some of what has been written in my books are prophetic visions that are world-based and not necessarily of a personal nature.

My personal worldview has been that I can focus my energy along a certain path and the results will unfold within a generally specified time-frame. I have had great success with this method for decades and have manifested into being a most unusual and highly unorthodox life. It has been a never-boring ride on some roller-coaster-of-life that veered off the track of what is ‘normal’ or conventional and into some curious byways of magic and mystery. And whatever you choose to call them (if you do acknowledge such things!), my spiritual companions that reside in a parallel world have been along for the ride and have assisted in the success of my projected outcomes. The “Fairy Godmother” is in this post because she humourously represents my otherworldly companions.

Now I find that time, circumstances, and forces of nature or humankind have been ‘conspiring’ recently to prevent my pre-visualised outcomes from unfolding as expected. Yet all of those forces were ‘seen’ by me several decades ago and now they are appearing, right on schedule. How conveniently I seem to forget that I knew that more challenging times were ahead for the planet and its people — but it is only when I feel personally impacted that a certain portion of my brain creaks back into life and my consciousness says almost aloud — “You knew all of this was coming. None of it is a surprise.”

But knowing it and living it are two distinctly different things. And I am having a minor harumph about it all.

Guess it’s time to help mend the Fairy Godmother’s wand. Let’s see — where is that duct tape when I need it. Or should I just close my eyes, summon up a gathering of the ‘clan’ of invisible-yet-present helpers, and get cracking on the meditation-manifestation-visualisation once again. Maybe between us all we can either repair her wand or present her with a sparkling new one. Then with a mighty swish and a roaring sound, we can sprinkle magic dust on this damaged planet and her damaged people and hope that enough of it is absorbed to make a difference before an unpleasant tipping point is reached.

I live in hope!

And how deep is what you can see in the photos? Over my ankles in most places and 3/4 of the way to my knees in other parts!

This is the craziest winter I have ever seen!

And remember the waterfowl that I mentioned in a previous post? This shot was taken 3 days ago — before the latest deluge. In what universe are we supposed to be getting these in our part of Australia where we are usually dealing with drought??? Sheesh!!!