Life has a way of turning upside down and shaking all about. In my last, long ago post, I mentioned plans to travel to Victoria – back in October, 2023. And now it’s May, 2025, and very nearly June.
Sadly, on the day I returned from the Victorian trip, my older sister was admitted to hospital. She was diagnosed with lung cancer, and it turned out to be already widely spread and aggressive. It was a very difficult time for us all, and she died on December 1st. Sorting out her affairs proved complex and took much of my time for a few months.
More happily, I submitted and had accepted a proposal for a presentation at the Making Historical Dress Network workshop in Leicester, UK, in March, and that was the prompt for a wonderful 7-week trip to the UK and Denmark in March and April 2024. I haven’t been to the UK since a trip with Mum in 2013. I spent time in London, Hebden Bridge in West Yorkshire (the inspiration for Hartdale in my books), Aarhus in Denmark where my niece lives, and a wonderful week in St Mary’s in the Isles of Scilly. After my Aarhus visit my niece flew to London with me and joined fellow historical romance writer Anna Campbell and I for the St Mary’s week. It was envisioned as a writing retreat and Anna and Ell did do lots of writing. For me I think it was a much-needed wind-down and rest time, although I did manage some words.
We rented a wonderful cottage, right on the promenade in Hughtown, St Mary’s, which is the largest island in the Scillies. Above is the view from our front window – and watching the sunset became an evening ritual!
One of the many highlights of the trip was afternoon tea with my niece, Ell, at the Dorchester Hotel in London. My mother had afternoon tea there back in 1953; in 2013 we went together, with friends. And so it was the first choice for Ell and I to have a special outing in 2024. The Dorchester is, I think, the best place for afternoon tea. The Dorchester has beautiful elegant floral arrangements, is spacious and quiet, with the tables spaced apart so that you are almost in your own world. The service is impeccable and the food delicious. We had a delightful 3 hours, just talking with each other and eating very tasty treats.
I came home in early May, with a rush to get ready for A Regency Affair in the Southern Highlands of NSW. Once again I was teaching workshops, and it was a wonderful weekend catching up with friends and dressing in Regency outfits.
I was barely home from that event when an email arrived with life-changing news. In March that year I’d submitted an application for a PhD industry scholarship at the Australian Catholic University in Ballarat, in collaboration with Sovereign Hill, Australia’s leading living museum, representing the Gold Rush era of Ballarat in the 1850s. I didn’t hold out much hope, but the email I received in late May informed me I was the successful applicant. This PhD opportunity brings together all my interests – researching dressmakers on the goldfields and exploring ways to represent them in the living museum. It’s history, dress history, dress re-creation, and museum practice all combined – with plenty of interesting stories to (eventually!) inspire novels.
The last half of 2024 was a blur of sorting, packing, putting my things in storage, moving 1400km, staying with my sister in Canberra and my cousins in Ballarat from September to February while our house was readied for sale and on the market. G and I had already planned to put our place on the market, and had decided – very amicably – that we’d go our separate ways when it was sold, remaining close friends but following our own paths.
Through the first months of that madness, I was also finishing my Master of History degree, which included re-creating an 1884 wedding dress in the Armidale Folk Museum. I submitted my research report in early October, and my last assignment for the degree a couple of weeks later.
Now it’s the end of May, 2025. I officially started the PhD at the end of January, and couldn’t have asked for a more supportive and inspiring group of supervisors and fellow students at ACU and Sovereign Hill. I’m currently renting a lovely (but cold) 1898 house in Ballarat Central while I look for a house to buy. Our place up north sold in March, and I brought the dogs down here to live with me. Sadly our elderly Skye had to be assisted across the Rainbow Bridge a few weeks ago, leaving our Pippin somewhat bereft, and struggling with all the big changes in her life, but that has been eased somewhat with G coming to stay with us for a few weeks. In an unexpected turn of events, after considering other places, he has decided to move to Ballarat, too, and is in the process of buying a townhouse. We’ll still be leading separate lives, but it will be good to have him close by, and Pippin will enjoy visiting him (and being puppy-sat while I’m at uni.)
What does this all mean for my writing? Unfortunately there hasn’t been a great deal of time for writing, but I am still, when I can, working on the next book in the Hartdale Brides series – a book I’ve been working on since The Clothier’s Daughter was published, almost 6 years ago. It’s been way too long between books, I know. The current one has proved a challenge to write, and finding space and creative time to solve the challenges has been difficult. However, I love the characters, am gradually making progress and hope that it will be finished and published late this year.
Although I’ve been distracted by other life priorities in study and dress history, there’s still a novelist inside me, wanting to create stories. So there will be more books. All fingers crossed I can find a house to buy soon, make the move and set up my new home with a writing space as well as a studio, and fully settle into my new life!
