It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

 November is a few days away and friends are starting to do their Christmas shopping...it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. We've had six inches of rain in the past few weeks so the dams are full and the grass is green - life is beautiful in good seasons with so many birds in my garden and fat kangaroos that don't need to eat my roses in order to stay alive.

I turned 62 this year and I'm loving it. I'm running 2k - 5k most days of the week after trying to run 100m several months ago to shut the gate when a horse was loose and found I could barely make 100m. How did I let that happen? I used to love running. I think we sometimes manage to get by each day, keeping depression at bay and barely 'getting through'. All our energy goes into appearing happy and bright to others while shadows grow long within. Maybe a symptom of that is not caring about the extra few pounds, not caring about staying home more and more often, and not caring that the fires that once burned within are going out, one by one. I decided to start running again because my body had kept me alive for 62 years and it's time I appreciated it more and cared more about what I was doing to it. 

Running changes a lot of things. I enjoy being alone in the bush as I run up the mountain at the back of our farm and back down for a 5km run. It clears my mind for writing and I'm feeling more positive. I mean, I always appear to be 1,000% over-the-top, enthusiastically positive because there's no point in complaining about things - it doesn't change anything apart from bringing others down. I even felt positive enough to have some photos taken for book interviews last week - some photos below. My grandson had a look-in because who can resist such a gorgeous little man?

62 and looking forward to the next 40 years. I want to publish another 20 books (at least), win some more national titles with my horses (I have dozens, but I look forward to winning more), and do some travelling. I've never been overseas so it's Florence with my friend Karen (we watched Armstrong walk on the moon together when we were 10), Turkey with my friend Alana (the other grandmother of this gorgeous boy), and Israel with my cousin Stephen and his wife Michelle, and I might wander around Britain by myself... well, maybe. Or maybe I'll stay home with my animals and write more because that's good, too.