How to Neglect a Blog, Part One: have something better to do...

The first thing you need, if you're going to blog assiduously, is plenty of time to devote to it ... and not much else to do. Or, perhaps, nothing better to do with the time. As soon as you get busy, though there's a lot more to blog about, you don't have the time to put into it -- and you lose the urge to sit in front of the computer for hours on end!

Still, I want to keep up with this blog, because if nothing else it's a kind of journal. In ten years I'll be able to touch down here and see what I was doing at this point in my life. 

So ... what have I been doing for the last month and a half, if I haven't been blogging? To begin with -- writing and editing. Dark is the Valley is now finished and edited. All I have to do is lop about 700 words out of the manuscript to bring it down under 150k, to fall into line with publishers' requirements; and this is the work of a few days. Then we can put this one on the shelf and say, "Another one done!" 

This is enough work to bump blogging onto the back burner, even before I mention photography. 

And the truth is, in these last months, since I got my hands on the Lumix (in February), life has been about photography. It's given me a reason to be out and doing, hiking, being active, getting the fresh air and exercise one needs to hang onto sanity, if not vitality. And that's one thing you can't say for sitting behind a computer, working six hours a day! Photography has put the zest back into life...

We've visited many places that lie within "accessible South Australia," and I've had more fun than I'd have believed possible with this tiny little camera. Next week is our "vacation week," Dave booked the time off work months ago. The weather is going to be awful, unfortunately; and even more unfortunately, I've thrown my back out, right on cue. 

I have a full-blown case of lumbago, so how much hiking around I'll be able to do, I don't know. Certainly, the weather won't be conducive to "pitching camp" in the woods all afternoon at Belair; it's going to be cool here, which means cold in the national park; it's going to rain more or less all week, which means dull conditions, not so good for photography; and if you add in the lumbago, right now I don't know what we'll be able to make out of next week! But we'll try. 

The plan had originally been to take off for the Clare Valley for the week, but the uncertainty surrounding the pandemic made us cautious. It would have been a very expensive trip, with accommodation to be booked long in advance, involving a 50% deposit, all of which was forfeit in the event travel restrictions were reimposed. We got burned that way in March and lost a few hundred bucks ... didn't want to run the risk again, so we decided on day trips.

So the next plan was -- orchid hunting at Belair on Monday ... well, not with this spine! Then Cleland on Tuesday ... in the rain?! And so on. And on. We will play it by ear and see what's possible on the day. Right now, I'm nursing a back that feels like it was caught in a car crusher, while the covid-delayed TDF plays out, due to end on Sunday, and I chisel away at the novel to get the length down under one of the major publishers' benchmarks. 

This, and photography, are life at the moment. So -- if I were to turn this blog into a photo blog? Hmm. That's not a bad idea...