Rain!

We have an early start to winter it seems. Given we are just over half way through Autumn after a very dry summer this is something to be grateful for. By 9.00 am yesterday we had already exceeded our average April rainfall and there has been quite a bit since. We are still lagging behind the average for the year to date but this is going to mean that the gardens will need less water which will put less strain on the dams and the underground water which Perth supplements its water supply with.
We have a new desalinisation plant in operation now but there is so much more that could - make that should - be done if only our politicians had the foresight. Sadly whenever someone comes up with an innovative idea it gets pooh-poohed. It won't work. If it could work it will cost too much. It will take too long. We don't have the technology. What rubbish. By that criteria the Western Australian goldfields wouldn't have had a water supply piped in from the coast a century ago. The massive works of the Romans would never have happened. We wouldn't have the Panama Canal. The list is endless.
It seems to me that with climate change altering where rain will fall we should be trying every way we can to collect water and we should be encouraging everyone to be involved. When we built our house twenty five years ago we looked into options for installing rainwater tanks and recycle grey water believing that to do that then would make us environmentally responsible and that it would be cheaper than to try and do it later.
"No, you can't do that," we were told. "Rainwater tanks breed mosquitoes and there is no way to recycle grey water." The fact that it was being done in other parts of Australia successfully meant nothing. Things have changed dramatically in the last few years. Rather too late don't you think.

Oops you've caught me ranting again so I will calm down and go to the vet to pick up Jaz who is having some work done on her mouth. Poor little dog.

Life after Clarion

There has been a succession of family crises since I came home. It's as if the Universe saved everything up to throw at me as soon as I got off the plane. I'm spending so much time ducking and weaving it's a wonder I even get near the computer let alone write. So now you know why the blogging has been sparse.
I am starting to make some progress with the goals I set myself - much more slowly than I'd like but something is better than nothing in the circumstances. So here's some of what I have achieved on the writing front. Another Clarionite and I gave a talk about the experience to our local speculative fiction writing group. I also gave a talk on the Clarion experience to my local writing group. I have edited four of my Clarion stories and I think they are ready to go out. I ran a workshop at a writers' group on critiquing techniques and conducted a follow up workshop where those techniques were applied. I have several stories underway and am working on them whenever I can grab a moment. Finally I have been asked to be a guest speaker at a meeting of State branch of a nationwide writing organisation.
Well, that's not as bad as I thought it was. I think I'll mark my report card "Making progress but could do better."