On Retreat

Hi all, I’m away in Queensland on my annual writing retreat with a group of writer friends. It’s something I look forward to every year. I think we all do, because we live so far from each other that usually this is the only time we see each other face to face. We phone, of course, and email, but nothing beats in-person communication, sharing ideas, working out problems, brainstorming, and laughing — lots of laughing. You can read about my previous retreats here, here and here.

This is the view from my balcony. We stay in an apartment building directly opposite the beach, as you can see. We each have our own room so we have a quiet place in which to write — and since we all have books to write and looming deadlines, that’s important.

We might have fun, but it’s also very much a working retreat. Two people in the group share a two bedroom apartment, and that’s where we tend to meet in the evening.

The trees you can see are Norfolk Island Pines, which are native to  Norfolk Island, a small Pacific island 1,413 kilometers (878 miles) directly east from where I am at the moment. Captain Cook “discovered” and claimed Norfolk Island for the British Crown in 1774, naming it after the Duke of Norfolk. He saw the Norfolk Island pines and the local flax as potentially useful for shipbuilding, particularly the tall straight pines, which were used for masts. These days you’ll see Norfolk Island Pines at most beachside towns, as they’re better suited to the range of climates than palm trees,

We feel lucky to be coming here, as southern Queensland recently faced a cyclone. Luckily the cyclone slowed down over the ocean and by the time it hit land it had been downgraded to a big storm. But there was still a lot of damage — trees uprooted, and all kinds of damage to houses and a lot of people were without power, gas or water for days. I saw the remains of a couple of big trees that had been blown over along the main street. All that remains is the root ball, which will be taken away soon.

The beach at Surfers Paradise, just up the coast a bit from us, was washed away. But as you can see, at Coolangatta, the beach survived. Which was not just lucky for us, but for the national beach volleyball championships which are about to start here. Today they’ve been putting up barriers and flags and tents on the beach and it’s all looking so colorful.