The accidental gardener
As a child, my family moved frequently. We lived in rental accommodation so there was little incentive to take an interest in plants or gardening. This all changed after l married and went to live on the outskirts of suburban Melbourne. In the first few years, I planted hardy agapanthus, miniature bamboo and a vegetable […]
Pets make a home
Moving pets is very stressful for animals and their owners. Close family friends of mine were under urgent pressure to move internationally, but the restrictions and costs associated with transporting their dog were prohibitive. Sadly, they decided to leave him behind. With all of the serious emotional and financial issues around the move, they had […]
Louisa May Alcott – newcomer inspiration
The Alcott family moved an exhausting twenty-two times in thirty years before settling into Orchard House in Concord, Massachusetts, which became the setting for Louisa May Alcott’s (1832–1888) semi autobiographical novel Little Women. She certainly deserves a special award for enduring so much change. Louisa’s father Amon Bronson was an intellectual and educator but he […]
Word tourist
To select words for The Newcomer’s Dictionary, I became a word tourist. That is to say, I would visit a word and delve into its meaning and history in order to decide whether it should be included. Words that I considered distinguished runner-ups include: alien, baggage, distance, émigré, home, homesteading, relocate, settler, tourist, transient, transplant, wanderlust and […]