I was born at Shipton Farm, Winslow, Buckinghamshire, England in 1941
and spent my early years pursuing my love of horses through several neighbouring counties.

I came (rather unwillingly, to say the least) with my parents, sister and brother, to Australia in 1956,
and lived ever for almost fifty years in Montrose, a small township in the foothills of Mt Dandenong.
Unable to settle to further study due to extreme homesickness, I began work in Melbourne and gained the secretarial skills which have been in constant use in one form or other ever since.

I had always been a knitter and was keen to spin my own wool and dye it. This led me eventually to teach spinning, weaving and dying, as well as judging fleeces and exhibiting finished articles. For many years my mother and I mounted a large exhibition in conjunction with the fleece section at the Lilydale Show. Those interested in this craft may like to look at a few photos from this era.

I have always loved the written word, and the images that words created in my imagination.
About fifteen years ago I began the long quest of endeavouring to acquire the skills
which would enable me to mortalise my imaginings.

I began with a class at a local community house and continued with several intermediate classes. When a two year certificate course was established at the Melbourne College of Decoration (now RMIT) I enrolled with lightning speed. The completion of this course (and presentation of a computer generated certificate with my name typewritten thereupon!) failed to convince me that I had become a calligrapher of any great skill.

Workshops with several visiting tutors (Margaret Daubney, Anne Hechle and Mark Van Stone) served to reinforce my realisation that my letter forms still left much to be desired.

With the advent of Jill Colebatch's wonderful two year course For The Love of Letters,
I gradually came to acquire more confidence and familiarisation with classic letter forms.

Having been a member of the Calligraphy Society of Victoria since 1987 I suppose it was only fair that I take a turn serving the Committee in some way. In 1992 I became Secretary and realised that a few computer skills wouldn't go astray. Purchase of my own computer enabled me to keep the Society's records up to date and also gave me the opportunity to learn and use Pagemaker to produce our magazine Postscript. I was Secretary for four years and continued as Editor for another two. I was honoured to be made a Life Member of the Society in 1998.

In February 2003 Jonni and I began the building of our post and beam mudbrick home in the beautiful Yarra Valley, to the east of Melbourne. This adventure has been documented on our website

http://www.duckpond-design.com.au/theduckpond