I met Carolyn though my husband. Anthony was agisting cattle on her husbands property and I think (other than Anthony) she was one of the first people I met, when I arrived in Esperance as a “scared-but-never-going-to-admit-it, don’t-you-know-I’m-tough” nineteen year old! For that, I will be forever grateful!

It didn’t take us long to become firm friends after discovering we had many things in common; reading and books being just a couple!

Cal and I just ‘clicked’ – I know that sounds cliché, but it’s true. She has been my dearest and ‘bestest’ friend for over seventeen years now and I couldn’t imagine my life without her. In fact, I just won’t!

So a little about our friendship and why, to me, she is a ‘rainbow of inspiration, achievement and hope’.

Cal and I are like chalk and cheese! She’s a real right brain girl; organised, logical – a list girl! (And she ticks off the jobs as she’s done them! If I write a list, I’m likely to lose it!)

I’m the ditzy left brainer, always charging round with ideas in my head and without a proper plan. Ploughing through my overflowing desk, never making real headway and making it to the school bus with seconds to spare.

But Cal is an inspiration to me because of the way she raises her children, because of the way she runs many different businesses from her home and because she can be so organised and in control – she knows when it’s time for her say ‘no, I busy, I’m spending time with my kids’ or ‘I’ve got office work to do.’

So meet, Cal (who really didn’t want to do this blog, but she did coz she loves me!). I bet you love her as much as I do!

Oh, by the way, this photo was taken on the day of the Red Dust launch!

Carolyn

Hmmm, I don’t think everyone has to love me like you Fleur!! However I will say having a friend like Fleur is an inspiration to me and she is sunshine in my world.

Yes I am a list girl and I like to be in control of my life, which has only grown worse since I had children. I’m sure some of you mums out there know what I mean! Life becomes slightly unhinged when these gorgeous gems arrive in our life. We wouldn’t have it any other way but, boy, do our lives change.

To really make the right brain girl come alive, I have a business degree, majoring in accountancy! Hmmmm – couldn’t think of anything else to do at the age of sixteen and earn myself some decent dosh!! It has been a blessing in all areas of my life although I would probably choose to study forensic anthropology or criminology if you asked me now! Neither occupation would be vey useful in our small town mind you!

However there lies the beginning of being organised. I was told when I had my first child that people in my sort of job tend to find it harder to adapt to life with children. Not what I needed to hear!! I have well and truly adapted to this other life now and wouldn’t be without them at all. I find my life enriched daily although, I am only human, and sometimes despair of their behaviour and long for time out for me!! I have two boys (which is alien enough for a girl!!) aged 10 and 6 and a half. Loud, boisterous, physical, loving, smart, funny boys….

When I was little (or younger!) I was fairly quiet. I loved my books, and still do, but I was never the life of the party. I do like to remain in the background as Fleur well knows!! I have had many dreams over the years – some come to fruition and some never see the light of day. But that is what life is all about. Our dreams are important whether or not they become real. At one point I wanted to write a book  – I’m sure there are many of you who would say the same – however I will now say, with a sense of finality, that I will never achieve this. Not because I don’t wish to write anymore but because the romance of the idea has been lost in the practicalities. Having helped Fleur nut out many storylines I realise that I’m a dreamer not a realist and writing is so damn hard!!! I’m now thrilled everytime a chapter is finished or a plot is worked out!!

Apart from this I also live on a farm, although I am not a farmer as Fleur is. I am the office girl! We have two businesses – the farm and a contract spraying business which I oversee the paperwork for. I’m right in my element there! I also have a stationery business with another dear friend. Although I am not far from our nearest town, living on a farm can isolate you. Luckily I enjoy my own company however being involved in occupations you like can help to connect you to the outside world.  Finally, just because I  have so much time on my hands, I’m also thinking of starting an internet based research business helping people trace their family trees. I’ve been researching my own family tree for over 20 years and often help others.

In amongst all of this Fleur and I regularly catch up, albeit mostly on the phone. We live close to 100km apart so it is not easy seeing each other. Our children attend different schools and play different sports so these are not places we catch up. Being a parent isn’t easy either – it is constantly demanding whether it is the kids themselves, what they are involved in or their activities in school. And yes there are times I tell Fleur I have no time for her!! The kids must come first or I will lose all semblance of controll!!

Through all of this our friendship has remained strong. We are yin and yang to each other but for all of our differences we get along famously and, of course, love reading. I have enjoyed immensely my ride with Fleur over the past few years with her journey as an author and it has been an eye opener for me as I’m sure it has been for her!!  Celebrating life each day, whatever we make of it, is so very important……just as having special friends to share our successes and failures is.

Victoria Brown is a local celeb. In fact, she’s probably the most famous person I know, in person! Vic and I share many things in common; we are farmers’ wives, love writing and reading, theatre, good wine and lots of laughs.

Vic takes things one step further than I do – she acts in the plays that she writes, she performs her work  through recitals  (I just let all of you read mine!).

But not only that, she juggles being a mum and general hand on the farm. That’s why she’s a ‘Rainbow of hope, of inspiration and achievement’

Visit her hysterical blog to read about her views on the important matters of life or website to read more about her, or read her previous blog with me, here.

Victoria:

I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t writing or performing something. I’ve always loved language and laughter. As a child I wrote non stop, mostly stories and sketches for school. I also wrote sketches for my brother and me to perform in front of my mother and our home help, Mrs Joyce. God knows how many performances they had to sit through at morning coffee time as David and I acted out yet another sketch for them. I thought they smiled benignly all the way through our theatrical delights. In hindsight they might have been grimacing…..

At high school, college and Uni I wrote more sketches, one act plays, monologues, and humorous narrative poetry. The sketches were often written and performed with my best friend Sarah. We thought we were hilarious. Were we? Well we can’t have been too bad as we were always asked to do some sort of entertainment at various functions throughout the year. I’ve had various writing partners over the years and love to write satirical sketches for revues for the local theatre guild here in Esperance as well as for radio. It’s great bouncing ideas off someone else to get the creative juices flowing……and then having to discard one third of the material due to it being totally inappropriate!

The writing and performing of poetry really took off for me when I found myself living on a farm east of Esperance with three small children, an hour from the nearest town, and with no creative outlet at all. I wrote ‘The Local Elders Man’  one summer and the ball hasn’t stopped rolling since then. As a child my mother would always encourage David and me to re-write words to songs or make up silly rhymes when we were in the car. She was emphatic that the rhythm and metre were as correct as possible which is probably why I find it quite easy to write Bush Poetry.

It is great to be able to write and perform your own work. You can hide a multitude of sins in your bush poetry when you perform it yourself. The seasoned Bush Poets say that a good performer can make a technically incorrect poem sound brilliant, whilst a useless performer can kill a brilliant poem!

At the moment I am enjoying co-directing a play called ‘Captive Wives’ at the local theatre. It has been written by Perth playwright Jenny Davis and is set around our district when farm land was being cleared in the seventies. I’ve also done a couple of bush poetry workshops recently which have been great fun. I get the chance to travel around the state and meet lovely people who are as passionate about writing and performing as I am. I’m also editing a novel my mother wrote before she died. It’s about an Australian girl from the Kimberly who goes to England to work with horses.

So the long and the short of it is that there is not much of my own writing going on at the moment, but lots of other creative things are keeping me well and truly occupied.

A few extra hours in every day would be good!