In these strange times, I have had time to sort out boxes and stored material.

In one I found some old school stuff….printing exercises about Don and Fay and a project for my Biology class.

I must have spent hours drawing and writing pages of text with a black ink pen. No idea how the teacher was able to read the minute text.

But now I see it foretold my later life, my  move to the country and my passion for writing children’s books.

I completed this project in my second last year at school (now year 11) and I then went on to Sydney University to do an Arts degree.

I had room for an extra subject so I enrolled in Zoology 1 , continuing my interest in animals and inspired by my high school teacher.

Apart from crowded lecture halls, Zoology 1 also required lab work.

I was blessed by having as a partner, a charming young fella who was repeating the subject.

He did all the dissections with (or for) me…the rats and the frogs…and I passed.

The lecture hall was full of young men, many of them medical students for whom the subject was compulsory.

My eyes were drawn to one in particular; I pursued him subtly and finally we did met.

We married in his first year after graduation as a medico, and this year marks a most momentous celebration…which may not happen because of the restrictions.

But he has taken me to a magical place in the country where I have boundless inspiration for stories for children.

My stories are full of images of kelpies, frogs, echidnas. roos, cows and calves, chooks, bees, magpies, and of course snakes (which I had foretold in my early sketches)

I even managed to insert a crocodile into my most recent story called ‘The Race,’ set in the wilds of Africa as a radical change from my Australian stories.

So it seems that life long patterns are set very early but only appreciated when you have time to look back and reminisce.