Renewal

It seems strangely apt that this blog about abandoned and forgotten things has been abandoned for the past year. There have also been apt reasons. Four months after I started this blog, I had a very close encounter with ruin and abandonment on a personal scale: my house was flooded in the Brisbane floods. The floods came on so suddenly on January 11 that by early morning on January 12, my partner and I were trapped in our high-set house by floodwater that was six feet deep in the front yard. Ultimately, the water was knee-deep within the upper level of the house.

We lost perhaps 25% of our possessions; we were very grateful that the damage was not more extensive (on the plus side, we no longer have any furniture from the 1970s!) We were very grateful to be able to stay with friends for the next two months while our house was repaired. 

In June, my poetry book, Electricity for Beginners, was published. And then in September and October, I went to the United States and visited New Orleans and Detroit. In New Orleans, I spoke to a woman whose house was ruined by Hurricane Katrina. A life-long New Orleans resident, she has not lived in the city since the storm.  In Detroit, I had the remarkable pleasure of meeting and exploring with DetroitUrbex. I also went to Easthampton, MA and met up with Stacy from House of Mirth. It was invigorating to meet up with so many wonderful people, all of whom were very generous with their time and their stories.

In short, it's been a busy year, and for a while I thought I'd abandoned this blog for good. But I haven't. I'm back. Here we go again.