Belinda And Willow The Dog

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Antarctica - An Expedition to the End of the Earth

I hope you enjoy part 2 of my Antarctica Expedition story.

Part 2. The end of the Earth? As we stood booted, life vested and ready to go I looked out into the sea at the Zodiac boats bobbing around, their drivers, our soon to be new friends, waiting patiently for us. I looked back at the plane behind us preparing to take departing Expeditioners back to Punta Arenas. Something a very wise guide said to us on the bus to the airport stayed in my…

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Of Myths and Legends, Story and Magnificence

Belinda at Fox Glacier We have travelled through volcanic owned landscapes. We have marveled at mountains rising from seemingly bottomless glacial rivers and lakes into a never-ending sky. The New Zealanders, original and immigrants, clearly took the time to consider the beauty before them before naming mountain ranges, lakes, glaciers and towns with names like “The Remarkables,” “Aspiring”. The…

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Undertaking Research

A recording for Tanya and Ella of my piece “Undertaking Research”.

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Willow the Dog Hijacks Belinda's Blog.

Willow the Dog Hijacks Belinda’s Blog.

I’m Willow relaxing on the sofa at home in California

Hi Everyone,

Mummy Belinda has been so busy writing her books that she hasn’t had time to write her Blog. I was adopted into the Shoemaker family just over a year ago. I have my own web-page now where I tell stories about my life travelling with Belinda in the USA, France and the U.K.

I even have a Tumbler site and you can find me on…

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Hi Friends,

Willow, my dog has her own web-page. She tells stories about her life as a rescue dog. You can also follow her on Instagram @willowthedog13.

www.willowthedog.com 

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Willow is travelling again and she loves Air France

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Hi Friends,

Willow, my dog has her own web-page. She tells stories about her life as a rescue dog. You can also follow her on Instagram @willowthedog13.

www.willowthedog.com 

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Recipes and Life - A Memoir

Recipes & Life - a memoir/cookbook celebrating family, food, love, laughter, loss & healing.

Sunday Lunch My mum always cooked a traditional roast dinner on Sundays. Dinner, usually eaten in the evenings by our family mid-week, was moved to lunch time on Sundays. Sunday Lunch, even to me as a small child, felt unlike mid-week meals which seemed more like food put in front of us to nourish the body. Without the words to describe the feeling of Sunday Lunch, even as a six or seven year…

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National Osteoporosis Month

National Osteoporosis Month.

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National Osteoporosis Month

Dear Friends, When I was approached and asked to write an article/blog Post on Osteoporosis in order to help draw awareness to the condition, at first I was excited to contribute, but then I went away on vacation, and relaxing in Spain with my daughter I began thinking more about it. I asked my daughter, almost rhetorically, what do I have to say about the subject? After all, it doesn’t seem to…

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Undertaking Research

Dear friends, I was delighted to wake up this morning in my hospital bed to see that a short piece I wrote on writing research has been published in the Brevity Blog. If you like this piece, please repost it, retweet it, or do anything you can in the name of literary citizenship to help me enhance my on-line presence. I hope you enjoy this short essay. Thanks for reading and sharing this.

Undert…

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Challenges, Writing and Otherwise.

Challenges, Writing and Otherwise

Hello again,

To all of you who keep nudging me and asking “when are you going to write another blog post, I want to say thanks for the encouragement! The reality is that when I’m working on an essay, or part of my memoir, I’m entirely focused on that, and blog posts disappear.

It’s that time of year again when we hunker down and enjoy the change in season. Autumn leads us into reflection, well…

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Audio recording - Forever and Ever

Audio recording – Forever and Ever

Recently, during my time at the Keyon Review Writer’s Workshop, I did a reading of a short piece I wrote during my week at Kenyon. All of us students read from work we had created during that week. This is my first experiment posting a reading to my blog. Please excuse the crude editing. I will work at fading in and out soon. I just wanted to get this up here asap.

I hope you enjoy this short…

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Dear Daughter

Dear Daughter, I listened to a recording of you sing last night. You sang a song to the moon. You were alone on a stage six thousand miles away, and I was at home, in the home in which you grew up. The symphony gathered like wood nymphs congregating in the forest, creeping through the long, tall grass until they found you; you, an angel with gossamer wings. That’s how I saw you in my mothering…

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Dear Teddy

Tuesday – Continuing with the Epistolary experiment

Belinda, aged 1, takes Teddy for a walk .

Dear Teddy, We are both getting old. I celebrated 56 years of my life last week, and I celebrated 55 and a half years of your life same day. I am told Santa Claus brought you down the slim chimney of my parent’s first house on my first Christmas Eve. I don’t remember meeting you back then, but once you…

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Dear Rattlesnake

Dear Rattlesnake.

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Dear Rattlesnake

This week I am experimenting with the epistolary form. I intend to write a letter a day and post it here. Monday

Dear Rattlesnake, You are not the first rattlesnake I’ve met. A few of your kind held me hostage one summer in my home in big Sur. One gave birth, live birth – I’m impressed, right outside my door. That mother took to the shade of the barn door a few steps from my front door, and when I…

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Light and Shadows

My husband, Ken, and I spent last Christmas in Wales with our daughter and my best friend and her family. We loved every minute of our time with our “chosen family.”

Two days after Christmas Ken and I set off on our drive back to London. Ken was to head home and I was to stay on for another four weeks in the U.K with my daughter and some dear friends. We decided to take a few days and play…

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