Thank heaven it’s spring tomorrow! And roll on summer! At least the days are getting lighter Down Under.

We have suffered a miserably wet, wild, and windy winter in Adelaide. It makes us wonder in awe how people in the northern hemisphere survive, year after year, the long freezing dark and gloom of their harsh winters.

I have planted in good time all my spring plants, including two different vines of table grapes which are already shooting upwards to provide fruit and shade in years to come. It’s childish, I know, but every morning I rush to check the vines first thing, for the thrill of seeing how far they’ve grown since the day before. I came to gardening at the age of fifty, having wasted half my life NOT in the garden, assuming I’ll live to be a hundred. Gardening is now one of my chief pleasures, so much so that I made my own compost for over a year to make sure the vines do well. And I’m scratched, bleeding and sore from a two hour stint of ripping out dead wood yesterday and feel fantastic. I wish I never had to write again so I could play in the garden forever, or in the kitchen. I’m a homebody deep down. I’m certainly not a happy writer. I find writing too hard, too tedious, and too quiet.

My editor, Allyn Johnston, is coming to stay as usual in September, to force me to write. I haven’t written anything new since she came last year. The more I write the more I fear and loathe it. Over the years I’ve developed a finer and finer perception of what constitutes good writing for kids so the job gets more difficult each time. I’m so pernickety these days that even thinking of writing fills me with dread.

But, hey, the adorable Where Is The Green Sheep? Has now been illustrated by Judy Horacek, and will, all being well, be out in the shops in Australia in May next year and perhaps even sooner in the USA. And following closely on its heels in October will be the poignant Hunwick’s Egg illustrated by Pam Lofts who also did Koala Lou, and Sail Away. And the year after that the wild Fairy Fairy, Quite Contrary will hit the shelves. Each of these books is totally unlike the other which makes picking the style of a ‘typical’ Mem Fox book very puzzling, even for me!

Our holiday in Spain and Russia was heaven. Five of us went together which meant lots of noisy happy hilarity at every meal. I adored having with me Jenny Darling, my literary agent, who’s obviously also a very good friend. It meant there was another female to balance the guys: Kim, John and Malcolm—not that they aren’t divine on their own! We’re now all passionate about Spain and feel sure we’ll return to the Alhambra in Granada one day. It was uplifting and also calming.

Russia (we were only in St Petersburg) was harder to take due to the air pollution and the fact that every second person smoked. My weak and wheezy chest didn’t like Russia at all, although the rest of us did. The gorgeous weather, the magnificence of the palaces, churches and monuments, especially The Hermitage, the overwhelming cultural history, the very air breathed by Dostoesvky, Gogol, Pushkin, Anna Akhmatova, Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, Chagall, Nijinksy and Diaghilev made it an awesome, jaw-dropping experience. In the few days we were there we felt as if Natasha, our friend and indomitable guide, had walked us for at least 500 kilometres. I lost a lot of weight, which only goes to show that exercise, not dieting is the way to go. Groan.

Holidays are sublime times for reading. I’ve already lent out many of the books I read while I was away so forgive me for forgetting the authors, but these in particular I have recently adored: The Girl who Played Goh; The Curious Case of the Dog in the Night Time; I’m Not Scared; and a divine and pure heart-ache of a novel by Elliot Perlman called Seven Types of Ambiguity, published in Australia this month by PanMcmillan (and surely in other countries as well).

I also recommend Paul Jennings’ fabulous new book, for parents: The Reading Bug and How To Catch It. It overlaps with my own book, Reading Magic, complements it and enlarges on it. It’s gorgeous: very funny indeed, and very useful.

Since Allyn is coming over here in three weeks I might well have written another book by the time I fill in the next Hot News Space. Grim thought! Pray for me!

Much love
Mem Fox xxx