Author Archives: susan

My grandmother – my mother’s mother – died when I was 14. Her name was Phoebe. According to my mother, she associated her name with the cheery black maids you often saw in Hollywood films back in the 1930’s. Her … Continue reading →

I finally did it. I deleted my Facebook account.  I’ve escaped! It wasn’t easy, however. Not only did  pictures of random friends appear, with the anguished (Facebook generated) message that they’d miss me, but I was required to give a … Continue reading →

Last week I dropped my little external hard drive on the brick floor. It landed with a crash –  as you’d expect – but in addition there was a rather worrying sort of cracking noise as well. My IT genius … Continue reading →

It’s only Saturday night, but I’ve already got that gloomy Sunday feeling. Perhaps it’s because night is falling earlier and earlier – and soon, when daylight saving’s done, we’ll be plunging again into the dark part of the year. So … Continue reading →

I’ve been going places with Patrick Leigh Fermor. He is the most delightful travelling companion; interested in history and art and architecture and plants and birds and clothes and popular songs and cloud formations and politics and cigarette cases and … Continue reading →

I posted Rembrandt’s shell last week , before I headed off  for a beach holiday at Phillip Island (for anyone who’s not a Victorian, it’s an island connected to the mainland by a bridge, and quite famous as the home … Continue reading →

I went to Melbourne on the train yesterday – well, by train as far as Gisborne, where we all had to troop off and catch buses in to Southern Cross. The bus trip enabled us to see where the weekend’s … Continue reading →

“Feeling hot, hot, hot!” This heatwave has really caused a bit of a meltdown in my reading habits. I took a vow a few years ago not to confine my reading to –   well, to re-reading. I was especially … Continue reading →

I have just finished The Wealth Beneath Their Feet: A Family on the Castlemaine Goldfields by Marjorie Theobald.  Though it is a history book, I read it as I’d devour a  fascinating novel – quickly, almost all in one go, … Continue reading →