Framed!

It’s Friday. Time to reconnect with my Poetry Friday friends. Oh joy!

Here are two pic-poems captured last weekend when we had our bikes (horrors begorrors!) out cycling – then swimming – on a gorgeous day in Agnes Water. (It’s been a long journey through frozen shoulder, but it is good to finally feel safe on a bike again – though I’m sticking to the beaten track, this time!)

Not my sunnies, in that second pic. (Not my hubby’s, either.) But the glasses that were on my face can’t have been too good – ’cause I didn’t even see them until I was home again! I love this random photo! (Though I do feel sorry for the loser of the glasses. I wonder if we maybe even chatted at this spot.)

Thanks Heidi, for hosting us, and sharing a juicy array of poetry from the kids. There are so many treasures there, so do skip (swim or cycle) across and enjoy.

Have a sunshiny week!

Joy in Words – and Pics!

Hello! Again. Since I’m still pottering along with my 365 #photoaday challenge – and adding poetry into the mix, I thought I’d pop in and share again. I know they’re not brilliant. But I’m really enjoying this play with creativity purely for the fun of it. I hadn’t realised how much I needed this. But this is me; joy in words. (And photos!)

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Oops. Taken by the beauty. Not a photo-a-day prompt.

Thanks so much Mary Lee for hosting us today, at A(nother) Year of Reading. And thank-YOU for popping along and being such an awesome community of friends and poets! (And inspiring me with your elfchens, last week!)

Can I just share some last ‘bonus’ pics with you before I leave? Because that rain… It did come. And our big dam is full! I have spent many hours out on my kayak during golden hour, this week. It’s been gorgeous! The birds are tricky to capture on my phone – but the beauty is not. (It’s just been a wrangle getting them from my phone to my computer! Gargh!)

Have a wonderful week, whatever the weather! I suspect we may be in for more rain – because it’s another steamy day here. Hoping our road stays open into the next week (it closed for two days this past week), as I have places to be!🙃

Photo a Day – Just Add Poetry

Hello friends. I’ve been quiet. I still will be. I just seem to have hit that stage where I am stretched in too many directions, and can’t do all that I used to do. Even the things I love (!) – like Poetry Friday.

But this week, I started adding poetry to my #photoaday challenge (that I’ve been quietly pottering along, doing with a friend, nurturing my creativity). And since we all love poetry (and I will always be missing my Poetry Friday friends) I thought I’d share a couple. I’m usually a perfectionist poet – but these are an exercise in minimalistic creativity. Purely for the joy of it. Some poetry forms you might recognise; tetractys, haiku, cinquain (didactic) and nonsense. 🙂

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Thanks Susan at Chicken Spaghetti for hosting today’s Poetry Friday round-up. And thanks to you, lovely peeps, for popping over and having a read. 🙂

Bee a Honey – Be Kind

Last week I did a Kids’ Segment in church, and talked about kindness – and kind words, in particular. I love Proverbs 16:24, where it likens kind words to honey; sweet to the soul and healthy for the body. To help kids remember to use kind words, I wrote this little shape poem, ‘Bee a Honey’ that paraphrases the Bible verse. Sharing it on my blog in the hopes it helps to spread a little kindness… like honey.🍯🐝

Thanks to Laura at Small Reads for Brighter Days for hosting the Poetry Friday link-up today. I hope your weekend is sweet!🐝

New Year – New Logic Board

Happy New Year!

My 2022 ended with a little stress – my computer crashed… A failed logic-board, meaning that I was completely reliant on my back-ups. To be honest, my initial feeling was relief. I’d really struggled to get to a creative place, typing one-handed, so I wasn’t sorry not to try anymore. I was mildly concerned that I may have lost what little work I’d done over the past 6wks – no knowing when I’d last backed-up – but I was hopeful I had something, atleast…

Christmas passed, and after a two-week tech-break, it was time to power up the revamp Mac. ⚠️⛔️⚠️ The new logic-board didn’t recognise my TimeMachine back-up disk!!! It looked like the disk was corrupt; 2+years of work… gone! (😱) Then … when we’d tried everything, and AppleCare was convinced it was a failed drive (Gaaaah!) they noticed that the new logic-board was still running on an outdated operating system. It was not compatible with my up-to-date Time Machine back-up, and therefore couldn’t recognise it. After 36hrs of stress (!!) and 6hrs of updates, I was finally able to restore all my old data. (Persistence pays!) AND I had run a back-up just 2wks prior to the crash, so very little was lost! (I even surprised myself, with that!)

Two things worth nothing:

1) If buying a Mac, buy AppleCare! This is my second Mac that has crashed out of warranty, but covered by AppleCare. (This was a 2yo machine, so I do find that concerning… But better to be covered than not.)

2) If at first your Time Machine data recovery doesn’t work… Update!

In other news, the New Year saw me released from my sling. Now trying to free up the frozen shoulder, and so glad I can type again!

Next week I’m thinking to revisit the Poetry Pep-up prompts from 2020. If anyone wants to join me for a 5-day pep-up, you’d be very welcome! Let me know in the comments. I’m thinking to create a padlet, for those who want to share poems and chat, but that’s optional. I’m keeping it low-key; a creative play with poetry friends.

Thanks to Catherine at Reading to the Core who is hosting our first Poetry Friday round-up for 2023. Sync or float – I hope it’s smooth sailing.🙃

Celebrating Miss Understood – Arooooooo!

What a thrill it was to celebrate the release of Miss Understood in the North Burnett Region, including launch celebrations with kids and staff – and my parents, too – at St Joseph’s Catholic School in Gayndah.

I’ve been very excited for the arrival of this book, because I kind of figured it would be a fun read aloud – but even I hadn’t realised how much scope there was. If you get into character and let go of inhibitions, it is a howl! (Especially when kids get into character, too, and start to see things from the wolf’s perspective (that would be, Miss Understood’s) – or in some cases, remaining loyal to those little stinkers and their porkie-pies.

It’s so much fun reading this book to kids! Who am I kidding??!? I love reading this book to anyone!!!🤭 (My brother scored a reading in his workplace last week. Now he knows how I expect him to read it. And he’s been practising.😹)

I must commend Beau Wylie on his choice of outfit for Miss Understood. She has great taste – and I rather like to emulate her!🐺 The touch of pink in both my 2022 books was also a gift and dressing for author events has been a delight.💕

🐺 Megan Daley (YKNR Podcast): I really, really enjoyed ‘Miss Understood’. It’s a fractured fairytale. It’s poetry. It’s full of puns. It’s got this wonderful beat and rhythm to it. It’s fantastic. A really, really clever little book.

🐺 What’s the Story Rory (Reading with a Chance of Tacos podcast): ‘I judged the book by its cover and I automatically knew I was going to love it – and the cover really lived up to the story… Really clever rhyme. Beautiful illustrations. Absolute joy to read… A brilliant book.’

Incidentally, it was also great to share The Bird in the Herd in an area where so many kids knew what a drover was! Prior to this, in the 14months since release day, during visits to schools and libraries in country and city locations, I have had one child who knew about drovers. (Yet every child can tell you about cowboys! And we don’t even HAVE cowboys in Australia. Aside from football teams.) Drovers are such an important part of our Australian heritage – and are still in operation today. (And not just in the North Burnett.) Yet Australian kids know more about their American counterparts.🤦‍♀️ This is why Australian kids need Australian farming stories!

I am for sure looking forward to more author events in the near future – and sharing Miss Understood with kids of all ages and sizes. Though there will always be something special about that reading at St Joseph’s, with my parents in the room. Dad was a pig farmer, so we grew up surrounded by pigs, their smells – and the puns! (There were even three kids in our family.🐷🐷🐷) Though I cannot recommend pigs in wedding photos…

Poetry Friday this week is with the lovely Linda at A Word Edgewise. Correct me if I’m wrong, Linda – but I am pretty sure that Miss Understood was one of those stories we shared at your dining room table…

Photo credits (and thanks) to St Joseph’s, North Burnett News, and staff at North Burnett Regional Council libraries. Photos shared with permission.

North Burnett Region – Storytime & Poetry Pep-up

If you live in the North Burnett Region, I will be presenting Storytime sessions for kids, and Poetry Pep-up for teens and adults over the next two weeks – and I would love to see you there! Details are as follows – and you can register online at; http://nbrc.eventbrite.com.

Poetry Friday Round-up – Release Week

I cannot believe it is the first week in March already – and yet, here we are, with storms and floods ravaging large areas on the south-east coast of Australia and Ukraine digging deep to show incredible fortitude in the face of aggression. My heart has been heavy. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13 (NIV)

And in amongst this turbulence, What Snail Knows slipped quietly into Australian bookshops – followed by beautiful, detailed reviews and so much love. I hadn’t expected such a response – and I am incredibly thankful for those who have taken the time to share. Here’s a little snippet from some of them. (Click the reviewer’s name to read each review in its entirety.)

💗 Kim Yeoman: I am in awe once again of Kathryn Apel’s skill in weaving together similes, metaphors, alliteration, imagery, rhyme and shape poetry with compassion and creativity to tell Lucy’s story.

💗 Lamont: Lucy is a character that you will fall in love with from the start. This story will be thoroughly enjoyed by junior to middle primary level readers.

💗 Sandy Bigna: This beautifully constructed verse novel for younger readers gently illuminates themes of loneliness, belonging, kindness, friendship and family. It will both break your heart and make you smile. Highly recommended for your 7+ reader.

💗 Barbara Braxton: A most poignant verse novel… a potent story of loneliness, friendship, acceptance, and building and connecting with community.

Mandy Foots light pencil artwork bring Snail and Lucy to life.

To coincide with release week, I was interviewed on the Australian Alphabet Soup blog, so if you’re intrigued about the answer to any of these questions, click the pic to read more.

Australian readers can also leave a comment on UQP’s Facebook or Instagram giveaway posts for your chance to win a copy of the book.

And don’t forget to leave your links below, for the Poetry Friday round-up.

I’m looking forward to catching you all on the rounds.

The Little Things

I am determined to post again – so today I’m sharing two poems I’ve had sitting in my files for many-many years. I’d never seen fireflies until I was married. And we still don’t see them often. Didn’t seen them at all during the drought years. But I saw some on Christmas day… and again, two weeks ago.

Fireflies

Fanciful
fireflies
fritter
the night away,
flitting
and flashing
like flickering
festive
fairylights.

By contrast, drought or floods, there are always ants. (And lots of them!)

Ants

Bit by bit
they thieve
and leave.
Left, right,
left, right,
left, right…

Left!

Hoping the little critters in your life are sparking your joy – not stealing it!

Someone who sparks my joy is Tabatha – and she’s hosting Poetry Friday this week, at The Opposite of Indifference. (She had some fun animal couplets last week. If you haven’t already seen them, scroll back for a smile.) Thanks Tabatha.

Wonder (of wonders, I am here!)

I’m becoming reacquainted with my computer after a break through the Christmas/New Year period. There are so many things I could post – but I just can’t yet pull those thoughts together, so for today, I’m keeping it simple with a poem (right) inspired by a moment of wonder I experienced this week.

My last post mentioned snail eggs. Well – I have since hatched four clutches of snails! But the tiny snails that hatched this week were a complete surprise – and so small, they almost escaped notice! There aren’t many – but I spotted T2 busily laying more eggs today…

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There are more bubba snail pictures on my Instagram page – and lots of other things, too, actually. 🙂 (I’m still basking in the beauty of yesterday’s sunset.) Click the montage to go directly and you’ll see I didn’t completely fall off the face of the earth, even though my blog was quiet.

And there are more poems on the Poetry Friday round-up, which you’ll find (with a jewel of a pomegranate poem) at https://ayearofreading.org.

Thanks Mary Lee for hosting the Poetry Friday crew this week. I made it! (Just…)