Lynne's story

In The colours of New England I tried to give you a feel for the pattern of visual differences across New England using a combination of visual material and words. Those variations are matched by differences in life style.

The hot summer morning of the inland when a swim in a dam or creek provides a relief for kids, the mud squelching between toes. The heat of the afternoon when a tree provides blessed relief.

To the east on New England's coastline the style is a little different. The upper valleys can be just as hot at times with the heat shimmering over the rivers and creeks, but further east the sea breezes bring relief, the huge expanses of beaches and estuaries provide a different playground.

I started trying to bring the coast alive in my distant memories of a now vanished North Coast series. As with so many series, this remains a work in progress.

In  Looking at New England life style I mentioned a series of posts that Lynne Sanders-Braithwaite was putting up, I asked you to read them and said I would write a comment in my next post. That next post has been a little delayed, in part because Lynne was putting more material up.

In combination, Lynne's posts provide a story of a life. It hasn't always been an easy life, and the difficulties involved are somewhat understated, inferred. Now while the demons are still there, Lynne has come through to a calmer period in which her successes as a mother, her success in fighting through, have in some ways been rewarded.

Lynne's world and mine may seem very different. I come from a New England academic-political family with extended links. This gave me opportunities whose scope is only now clear in retrospect. Lynne was born in Sydney and came to New England via a different and apparently more complicated path. Yet our lives lap and over-lap in location, experience and indeed even in some shared demons. I read Lynne and understand.

Blogging brought Lynne and I together. Then I saw the resonances. That is the reason why I have so often featured Lynne on this blog.

Lynne's series of posts also provides an unusually good picture of one slice of New England life.

As I suggested at the start of this post, the cadences of life vary across New England.

I now live in Sydney. There is no time and very little peace. This contrasts with the slice of life that Lynne describes.

My North Coast memories series seeks to capture a vanished world. Lynne's posts describe that world as it is now. There are many similarities.

The world Lynne describes is not for all. Many people like the anonymity and buzz from city life. Yet to me Lynne's world has many attractions because I just like doing the things she describes.

Please read the posts and enjoy.