I write about the places and people that move me
A Little Bit About Lulu Ashe
There has never been a time or place when I haven’t had a book to hand or a scrap of paper on which to write. I’ve walked into walls and stumbled up stairs because I was reading and I’ve stayed up all night, because I couldn’t bear to leave a story half written, only to struggle, bleary eyed, through work the next day.
My other passion is a combination of design and decoration. I haunt second-hand shops and rummage through market stalls, I gather pictures from books, magazines and online. Then I imagine these places and the people who live in them. I draw floor plans and develop family trees and, because the only place these interests could ever collide is in my imagination, I write about them. The Katingal stories are the result.
Whilst creating these imaginary lives I am also trying to make sense of mine. I invite you to follow my journey as I muddle my way through the changing dynamics of my family situation. I struggle to balance caring for my parents against their desire to remain independent and my need to maintain the sense of home and family I once knew.
[Thanks to Noel McShane from Pexels for the lovely image]
"In all her writing, Lulu Ashe works hard to capture and convey the human stories, no matter how small, that play out against the wild and unpredictable backdrop of the Australian countryside."
Parenting Parents
A sense of home is something to hold onto, even when the present has irrevocably changed. I long for my parents to be who they were, though I know that we can't step back...
An Australian journey of the soul. The emotional, physical and financial ups and downs of coping with ageing parents is overwhelming. Trying to find out about, and actually get, help is often a mountain that is just too hard to climb.
To help me process what was - and is - happening as my parents decline and require more and more care, I have written a blog.
Writing about it doesn’t make the pain go away but it does allow me to vent my feelings without wearing out the patience of my friends and allows me to see the lighter side of a thankless and sometimes traumatic existence. I hope that my words and experiences resonate with you and, if nothing else, can help you know that you are not alone.
Please click here to read the blog