Interviewed by Sandra.

Sandra at World's End Farm is doing this cool interview thing. As I will be away for most of this month I'm not offering to interview anybody but certainly go & play with Sandra!

1. You are a busy mother and homeschooler. In the moments you get for musing, what do you see yourself doing when your children have grown and moved on? I have a list of things a mile long for when I no longer have kids to run after! I want a really BIG garden ~ acres of it. No lawn. I don't do lawns. I want lots of psychotic/neurotic cats fawning at my feet. I will paint & garden & write more unpublishable novels & have my sights on getting back to Scotland & traipsing around all the outer isles. What Dearest is going to do I don't know. And what will probably happen is the grand kids will start arriving in the middle of these grandiose plans & none of it will come to fruition ~ but isn't the unexpectedness of life one of its joys?!

2. You live in Australia and it seems you have travelled extensively. If you could live anywhere, where would that be? Skara Brae! I'd do the travel back in time thing too. This is such a cool place to have lived. Have a look at the kitchenware. Wouldn't you like a stone dresser just like this one?

I've liked almost nearly everywhere I've visited. There is something special about any place you visit but some places make a deep connection with the soul & for me one of those places is Scotland, & in Scotland the places that have really seared my soul have been the oldest ruins imaginable ~ the henges & standing stones, the hidden cellars, the old black houses ~ but I think knowing the history helps. Mind you I know modern history too & modern places don't have the same effect on me. Maybe I just like really old things. The thought of some woman pandering to her vanity in a bronze looking glass, or using the mortar & pestle to grind her family's evening meal does something to me.

3. You are a Celt and you have a vast knowledge of the old civilization. Do you think you would have been a Druid or a warrior in the old times? I'd have been a ban file [woman poet]. They were part of the druid establishment but separate. I'm not cut in the warrior mold but meddling with language, I really get into that & Gaelic does things you just can't do in English. A Welsh poet composed an entire poem just using vowels! The rhyme & metre for different types of poetry were really strict so it was a very disciplined art which also relied heavily on meditation & visualization. When you read some of the Irish sagas where they talk about a file composing he wraps himself in a cowhide so it's dark & visualises the images. There's a Scottish bardic reference where the bard says he just watches the pictures on a blank wall & retells what he sees. I actually understand what they're talking about which is a little scary.

4. What besides your children, books and cat makes you tick? You forgot the Celts! :)
Writing. Before I'm anything else I'm a writer. I've always written. I think in images & words. I'm always thinking how to put stuff into a story but I don't have the time to focus on it properly at the moment. I guess if I gave up homeschooling I could but bottom line, people are more important than writing & there are already too many books in this world so while the world is undoubtedly waiting on my contribution in this area it is waiting with infinite patience.

God. I try not to fuss at people about it & I don't believe in bible bashing, or evangelizing the way it is usually done but without God I am nothing & nobody. He is my joy in times of trouble, my strength, all of beauty I know ~ My friend, Sian, says when you handle an animal they can sense Jesus in you. I thought she was a bit wacky at first. Now I don't. I own a cat that likes being preached to. He loves purring on my lap through a sermon. He senses when I've been close to God & really seeks me out then. Strange animal. Besides I like the odd things I find that link up science & religion: the sun pulses to a beat [there are several biblical references to the music of the spheres], that if water didn't freeze life on this planet wouldn't be sustainable ~ odd things.

5. I'll ask this question of you also. What movies do you think would make a good double feature?

Oh my! How to Lose a guy in 10 days & 10 things I hate about you; Babette's Feast & The Red Lantern [I may have that title wrong; it's a Chinese movie & completely harrowing. edited to add: I knew I'd got that title wrong. The movie is Raise the Red Lantern];The Lion in Winter & Curse of the Golden Flower; Edward Scissorhands & Fly Away Home. Or any combination of the above.

What can I say? I have girls. Chocolate & a good movie is always a goer! We watch a lot of movies. Do you do a psychoanalysis of my movie answers?