Little library at Wandin

Now that we can exercise within a 25km radius rather than the 5km one, my husband and I have walked a couple of sections of the Lilydale to Warburton rail trail. This follows the path of the former railway line, and is primarily used by walkers, cyclists and horse riders. 

Near what used to be the old Wandin railway station is a little library. Pre-COVID-19 I used to always carry a book in my backpack, so I could swap it if I came across a title I wanted in a little library. That's something I'm going to have to start doing again as Melbourne opens up.

Shops are still closed for a couple more weeks, so I'm going to look out for little libraries on my walks, and let you know of their existence should you also plan on exploring the outer easern suburbs as the restictions ease.

A fictional bookshop

When I wrote in my last post that I wouldn't be visiting any second-hand bookshops for a while because of COVID-19, I had no idea that seven months later I'd still be spending pretty much all my time at home. Melbourne went into a second wave at the end of June, and we've all been tightly locked down since July - and particularly since August when a 5km travel radius was brought in, along with a curfew, and a 1-hour (later extended to 2-hour) exercise limit. 

Although I haven't been able to visit real bookshops, I've been spending a bit of time creating a fictional one. I've been writing stories for The People's Friend magazine for just over a year now, and in June came up with the idea for a story set in a second-hand bookshop in the fictional English village of Haweshill. It was published this week, and I've had two more stories about Matilda and her bookshop accepted, and there's a fourth currently in the system.

Melbourne's cases are now minimal, and we're all hoping to be able to find a COVID-normal soon. I'm looking forward to exploring real bookshops again at some point soon.