August 19, 2025

On the mend

One of the women on the NT tour said it would be six weeks before I could ditch the splint for my fractured wrist and start using my hand more normally. She was right. It’s definitely improving though, and I’m cleared to drive again thank goodness, but there are still things I can only do with difficulty, or not at all. Thankfully partners do come in handy for such occasions! So it’s going to be a few more weeks before I feel confident about lifting heavy items, unscrewing the tops of jars, or doing some of the Pilates poses that involve strong(er) wrist movements than mine currently has. The first time back at senior’s gym tomorrow will be interesting. Definitely no lifting dumbbells for me yet.


At least keyboarding is easier. One-hand typing isn't to be recommended. I kept remembering the amazing pianist on the ABC TV's recent series The Piano which featured talented pianists from around Australia, some of whom were invited to Sydney's Concert Hall to perform. One of those selected was a very talented pianist who'd suffered a stroke in his '20s or '30s but had gone on relearn playing the piano with staggering skill - using just one hand. What an inspiration. And a reminder not to complain given my limitations were only temporary.


No physio is required though, just the hand/wrist exercises I’ve been doing anyway and that are getting easier. My wrist soon lets me know when it’s done too much and it’s time to stop. In what is hoped will be Tassie’s last gasp of freezing winter weather hasn’t helped though, as I noticed yesterday. The wrist ached pretty much all day so the arnica cream had a good workout again.


Comments on the scar have all been ones of surprise – especially when people are advised where the surgery was done. I can only repeat what I was told afterwards: the surgeon who operated on my wrist at Alice Springs Hospital is regarded as one of the best, if not the best, in the country for this procedure, and his team are also held in high esteem. I think I was therefore remarkably lucky in the care and attention I received there, as well as back here in Tasmania. The follow up at Launceston’s Orthopaedic Clinic has also been excellent.


And the plate and pins in my wrist won't set off airport security as they're plastic not metal. Plastics are sometimes good for something even if I do wince a bit while admitting it. 

 

 

 

 

 


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Badger the beagle

The secrecy around toxicity testing on animals

By Anne Layton-Bennett • August 4, 2026
An Animals Australia article that highlights the use of toxicity testing of chemicals on animals is still being done around the globe.

Finding a publisher could be getting closer

By Anne Layton-Bennett • July 22, 2026
Attracting the interest of a publisher for this story of a community’s campaign to stop what would have been ‘the world’s fourth largest pulp mill’ being built was never going to be easy, but hoping the first of two 3-minute Literary Speed Dating pitch sessions will prompt at least one of the two publishers to request the full MSS. And preferably both of them. These twice-yearly Perfect Pitch sessions are offered to members of the Australian Society of Authors, and this is the first time I’ve taken advantage of them – mainly because of the need to have a completed MSS before doing so. Three minutes isn’t long to excite the interest of a publisher who is after stories in very specific genres, and who therefore needs to believe your MSS is worth investing the time needed to read it in full. I’m pretty certain I’ve excited the necessary interest, but given Jane will hear the pitches of many more optimistic and talented writers after my morning session today, there are no guarantees. That initial interest might well wane as the day goes on if other writers have written stories that sound far more intriguing – and marketable. One can never forget that aspect of publishing these days: will the book sell. I believe my story will – certainly in Tasmania it definitely will – but a wider Australian readership? That’s an unknown even if my mentor is convinced of the story’s universal appeal.  I’d certainly like to think I’ve caught the zeitgeist wave given the current widespread community unrest over AI data centres, that’s already prompting similar serious opposition, and for many of the same reasons the Tamar Valley’s community opposed the pulp mill. Environmental degradation, threats to public health, water usage – and water shortages in an era of escalating climate extremes – and the constant, relentless noise factor that’s associated with data centres, and AI data centres in particular. I’m crossing my fingers that the second pitch session will be equally positive, and that I could strike it lucky with both publishers requesting to see the full MSS. But I won’t get ahead of myself. I’ll just be keeping all fingers and toes firmly crossed for the next seven days.
Magni

Fiona's gift

By Anne Layton-Bennett • June 14, 2026
It’s taken far too many months for this marvellous model to grace the dedicated desk space in my office. When Fiona comes to visit next she will be very surprised, and hopefully gratified, that her amazing creative talent is finally on display. We’ve known each other for a very long time, and during the insanely busy time when I was helping to run the flower farm, working part-time in a school library, doing a spot of journalism on the side, and fighting the proposed pulp mill that is the subject of the manuscript I’m hoping to get published, Fiona cleaned my house each week. There’s only so much a person can do after all, and it has to be said cleaning our house during those manic years was fairly low down on the list of my priorities. But Fiona is a woman of many talents and she certainly possesses one that I so don’t have: sewing and dressmaking. So over the years she’s also made a few garments based on the pattern of a favourite garment that I was particularly fond of, and she’s also done some clothing alterations for both of us. My skills with needles and thread are limited to sewing on buttons, and taking up hems on John’s too-long pairs of jeans. Anything else is beyond me. But this fabulous model is the pièce de résistance – along with the beautiful crocheted knee warmer she gave me last year. This was when winter was approaching and so determined was I to finish writing the book, I decided to get out of bed at the insane hour of 5am and get in a solid hour’s writing in before dog walking and the demands of the day took over. Fiona was also one of many Tasmanians who needed to be circumspect about her opinion of the pulp mill. It was a project that polarised people, including families and friendships. She was one of several who passed on snippets of useful information, but on the basis of anonymity so it couldn’t be sheeted home to her.  Needless to say Fiona will be one of those whose contribution will be acknowledged – when this book is finally accepted by a publisher.

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