A Gypsy at Heart

We all have a landscape that is ours, that fits who we are, or who we would like to be. Some people need the nearness of others so that their view is never empty. Some are content with fences to border rooftops, chimneys, ordered gardens and lawns. Others want a river, an ocean, a beach, or even just a glimpse of water to add a sparkle, a particular smell, or a sound to their landscape. Surrounded as I was by fences, a cacophony of sound and a multitude of people, I yearned for a different place, without quite knowing what that was. I had a burning desire to be free of the ties that kept me in a place that never seemed to fit me. For all the years I was growing up my escape was in books and I walked through the doors they opened into worlds I never dreamt I could ever visit in reality. A Gypsy at Heart, the second volume of my life, begins soon after my marriage ended, when I left Sydney and began a love affair with travel.