Capricorn Hill Revisited

My mum, my cool friend writer/producer/director Zoe Harvey of Torrid Films and I said goodbye to Capricorn Hill yesterday. This 100-acre rural property on the road to Canberra served partly as a country home and also as a writers' and artists' retreat for several years through the generosity of owner Ken Methold, an AWGIE award winning scriptwriter and educational writer who now spends his time between a beach house on the South Coast and his Southern Highlands country retreat. Jozef, Bruce and I of BMP (Classic) were among the lucky ones to have stayed there in 2001 when it first opened. I remember bringing a plate of chocolate fudge brownies for Ken when we came to visit. They were pounced on by the other guests, the caretakers and (dare I say this rather sheepishly) us, and poor Ken nary got one. On my return home I promptly baked another batch and delivered them to him with the strict instructions he was to share them with no-one! Anyway, Ken has just sold the property and I wanted to revisit it again one more time before it passes over to its new owners, and to also show it off to my mother and my friend who have an affinity with nature as much as I do. 

It was a glorious day to visit. The sun was out and it was completely silent except for sound of the whistling wind, lapping water and various vocal birds. We walked down a slope of winter grasses to two dams brimming with water. We discovered about eight wombat burrows – absolutely wonders of excavation. Wombats are nocturnal creatures so we didn't see any up close and personal but there was lots of evidence of their travels through the pastures in the form of rather substantial droppings. Wombats can be deceiving – you think from their photos or film footage that they are small and cuddly, but in fact they can grown to about a metre in length. I saw one at dusk a few years ago crossing the driveway of a relative's property and had to wait several minutes for him to waddle to the other side before continuing in my car – he was massive (about the size of a pig but close to the ground). 

During our sojourn at Capricorn Hill, a flock of about 30 black cockatoos flew over the pine forest next door in semi formation. They don't screech like the white ones – instead they make a sound that's kinda hard to describe – for me it was like like a squeaky wheel and for Zoe it was like a rusty gate. My friend Sue Hudson who is an Aboriginal archeologist told me that black cockatoos are rain heralds if they fly in from the west. This has proved to be accurate countless of times in terms of my family farm – whenever  a couple of black cockatoos appear, we get rain within 24 hours.

Our time at Capricorn Hill was spent climbing fences, spotting butterflies and wild ducks, sitting on the deck and admiring the view, and completely surrendering to the experience. I felt lucky and grateful to have visited several times but to also have said goodbye on such an amazing day. Thanks Ken.

Au Revoir Kitty 2

I would have called him Leo if he had stayed, but I already look after 14 cats (6 domestic and 8 feral cats, the latter of which I am in the process of getting desexed). He is gregarious, exceedingly affectionate and a frenetic purrer, and he loves eating and wrestling. It was with tears that I said goodbye to Kitty 2 who went to a good home with Ashlie and her son Damon who promised to keep me informed on his progress.

Kitty 1 Finds a Home

I've been fostering seven kittens, and the first one – a little white female with black stripes that look as if they have been painted on with a brush – found a wonderful new home thanks to Jemimah (hope that's how you spell it!) and Craig. Thank you both. I'll be able to sleep soundly now knowing the kitty will be safe and loved. In case you're wondering why she's unnamed it's because it becomes more difficult to part with a named kitten and it also gives the new family full naming rights.

Free Comic Book Day

Get your free comics! Tomorrow – Saturday 3 May 2008 – is Free Comic Book Day with participating retailers in North America and around the world. To find a comic book store in your area go to the FCBD Store Locator. To check out some of the titles being given away on the day go to the giveaway FCBD Comics page. For Sydneysiders such as Jozef and myself, Kings Comics will be having signing sessions with comics writer and movie producer Jeff Katz who writes Booster Gold and the Freddy vs. Jason Ash mini-series, as well as Australian artist Nicola Scott who has worked on Star Wars and Birds of Prey. 

Spacing Style Gaffes

The obsessive perfectionist editor in me is becoming extremely frustrated at the line-spacing slip ups in our blog postings. As you can see from our recent posts, the style spontaneously changes from single spacing to one-and-a-half spacing and it is NOT a pretty sight at least to my eyes. On the new postings page we can apply justification, font size and type and other stylistic choices to our text, but we can't do the same for line-spacing. I am assuming that a particular style of line-spacing is imbedded as a default into the template, but alas it is not working out that way. Once I publish the new posts,  for some reason the template changes the line-spacing midway into the text. I have looked on the blogger Help menu and apparently this is not an isolated problem – many other neophytes and blogging pros are experiencing the same phenomenon (and I only thought that Microsoft Word had the capacity to change your layout midway through a document without any prompts from the author!) Unfortunately I cannot find a practical solution or even instructions on how to bring consistency into the blog page. Will keep trying but in the meantime, are there any Black Mermaid readers out there that can miraculously come up with the answer?

17 June 2008 UPDATE: Some time in the last week or so, all the line spacing problems through our entire blog have mysteriously resolved themselves. Thank you to the style fairy out there in the wild yonder who took care of it. 

A's and B's and Circadian Rhythms

Read an interesting article in Sunday Life – The Sun-Herald Magazine (27 April 2008 issue). Entitled 'Wake-up call' by Dan Roberts, it discussed the difference between A-people who are early risers and who enjoy working from 8am to 4pm, and the B-people who are "genetically predisposed to wake and work later". The idea took off in Denmark where Camilla Kring formed the B-Society to campaign for changes in the way people learn, work and live. The B-Society now has 5000 members, and according to the article, "its manifesto which calls for 'an uprising against the tyranny of early rising' has persuaded the Danish Government to support B-certified companies in offering flexible working hours". 

Apparently the difference between A's and B's is linked to variations in circadian rhythms which control our body temperature, hormone levels, heart rate and sleeping-waking cycles. Moreover, Professor Jim Horne, a sleep researcher and expert from the Loughborough Sleep Research Centre in the UK defnes A's as 'larks', and B's as 'owls', with the latter being more suited to  shift work and coping with jet lag. Owls work best in the afternoon and evening. For further reading and to access the 'Are you a lark or an owl test' get hold of a copy of Professor Jim Horne's Sleepfaring: A Journey Through the Science of Sleep (2006), Oxford University Press, Oxford.

These theories go a long way to explaining the differences between Jozef's and my own work habits and energy cycles. I've always classified myself as a morning person (and indeed I usually wake up around 6am and want to do the bulk of my work prior to or just after lunch) whereas Jozef prefers a late start and doesn't kick in creatively so to speak until mid afternoon. He is also more prone to doing all-nighters to get his work done. The compromise we've come to is to start our business meetings and our brainstorming sessions at lunch time and to go beyond the standard 5pm work day, although I do privately lament the loss of three hours in the am. But hey – that's the sprightly singing lark in me!

Mother's Day Moon Bears

Great idea for animal loving families looking for a unique Mother's Day present. The AnimalsAsia Foundation which has rescued over 500 farmed bears in China (as far as I'm concerned founder Jill Robinson is a saint and her team are champions!) is offering a Mother's Day sponsorshop program called 'Befriend a Bear'. For a $100 your mum will get to support a moon bear for a year. She will also receive a photo of the chosen bear in a Moon Bear Rescue display frame, an AAF mobile phone wrist strap, and a magnet. You can choose from any of the following bears: Rupert, Banjo, Crystal, Freedom, Bottom and Somerset. Read their bios and view their photos on the Donate to Bears page on the AAF website.