SOL2015 March 16 - Monday In The Cave




Today, like most Mondays I spend a significant amount of time in my writing space. Writing, reading, preparing for the week ahead. The next three days will be spent in schools working with teachers and students on a range of literacy related tasks. Modelling, coaching and planning, are all part of the coming week. So too is a lot of driving.

 The time spent in my writing space (Vicki calls it,The Cave) is therefore vital to the work I am planning to do. In this space, I am surrounded by the books and writers who are my collaborators in writing. Their words sustain me, inspire me, challenge me.

The shelves are brimming with loosely categorized titles. Assembled on assorted shelves are books on reading, books on philosophy, books on general fiction, books on travel, books on history, books on sport, books that deal with general educational theory, books for children and young adults and two shelves of books dealing exclusively with writing. Also on the shelves are artifacts gathered from numerous times and places, magazines and boxes containing assorted paraphernalia. The drawers of my desk hold a multitude of stationary and a not insignificant amount of junky items too precious to jettison.

At my finger tips is the technology so essential to drive the many platforms of my writing and reading life. Computer, scanner and printer are at the ready.

 In the cupboards directly behind where I sit are shelves stacked with fiction and non fiction picture books. I am rapidly running out of space. But those irresistible books keep turning up. It may look a little messy, but I can assure you dear reader, I can pin point a book almost instantly.


Artifacts, ephemera, and other treasures
 Beneath the window is a couch upon which I can sit and read with the sun streaming in over my shoulder. I can watch the wattlebirds, rainbow lorikeets and rosellas feast on the seeds  and flowers of the Bushy Yate outside the window.  This is my main writing space. I have others, but this is where my writing finds its wings.

A Rainbow Lorikeet in the Bushy outside the study window

Comments

  1. I love getting peeks into the writing space of others!! Seeing the choices they make inspire me and help me with my own space. I must say that rainbow lorikeet is the prettiest bird I've ever seen!! Thank you for sharing!

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  2. Lovely space. And what a view. Beautiful bird!

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  3. I love the phrasing, "This is where my writing finds its wings" and its juxtaposition with that gorgeous bird! What an Aladdin's cave of riches you have created for yourself and how lucky others are that these treasures spill out generously through your teaching. Thanks for sharing!

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  4. Nature a glance away, books at your fingertips, and ephemera at hand, that's a writing space! I know what you mean about irresistible books, I'm out of space too.

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  5. Your writing space is rich. I like how you look at is as a cave with treasures. The last paragraph, with the sun and the birds outside your window, sounds like a paradise.

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  6. I love the fact that you have this enclosed and book surrounded space from one angle, and then a view of nature from another - a rich and varied space, indeed.

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