A Chat Among Bloggers, Episode 8.

Good day everyone, it’s ST. Valentine’s weekend and I have the perfect guest for our February chat among bloggers: Ivor from http://ivorplumberpoet.press/2026/02/02/lioness-eyes/ .

I have been following dear Ivor for years, and he never fails to bring me joy and warmth with his verses so….Sit back, relax and enjoy the chat.

O: From chemist to plumber  to poet (well, not just poet but published poet). Who is Ivor?

I:  Wow… who am I? I suppose it all goes back to my family heritage. We’re good old convict stock from the Port Arthur penal colony in Tasmania in the 1840s.

My great‑great‑grandfather survived that harsh institution, and here I am — a descendant carrying his resilience, stubbornness, and persistence.

I grew up in a loving, hard‑working family. Dad was a plumber, and Mum was a nurse. I excelled in maths and science at school and went on to become an industrial chemist. I married Carole when I was 25 years old. Three years later, my dad became very ill, so I left my job, became his apprentice, and ran the plumbing business.

After seven wonderful years of marriage, Carole developed MS, and I became her full‑time carer and a part‑time plumber. Eventually, something had to give, and I had a stroke at 49. During speech and writing rehab, with the encouragement of my therapist, I started writing little rhymes. She nudged me toward a local writers’ group — and from little things, big things grew.

O: How did you land on WordPress?

I: I’m still not entirely sure! I think it was my niece Kerri, who lives in Philadelphia. I used to email her my poems, and one day she said, “Hey, Uncle Ivor, why don’t you start a blog for your poems?” Everything snowballed from there.

O: What’s your writing routine?

I: Routine? What’s that! I write anytime, anywhere. But most often you’ll find me scribbling away in my favourite café.

O: How does a poem form for you? Do you have a process?

I: I’m not sure what’s inside my head. I’m basically an observational and visual poet. Wherever I am, I like to photograph what’s happening around me, and those visual prompts often spark the beginnings of a poem.

O: I know from “knowing” you for a few years now that your writing comes from difficult times , yet there is joy and serenity in it. Are you an optimist?

I: Yes, I’ve been through some tough times. But my dear wife Carole, who lived with severe MS for 30 years, greeted me with an “everlasting smile” every day. Together, we always looked forward to the next day with quiet optimism.

O: What’s your relationship with the WordPress community?

I: I’ve made many wonderful friends through WordPress, and I often email some of them personally. Even better, I’ve been lucky enough to meet a few in real life.

O: Ivor and the technology, how’s that going? And what about social media?

I: Technology can be overwhelming. I’ll be 75 in July, and I’ve only had a computer for about 20 years. I mostly bumble and fumble my way through. I do have Facebook and Instagram, but I mainly use them as extra places to share my poetry.

O: What’s your take on AI?

I: AI is an interesting concept. I use Copilot to help with punctuation, photo captions, and intros — I failed English at school — and sometimes to create a feature image for my WordPress posts.

O: Ever tired of the Australian sun? I mean, I live in Ireland, I can’t really imagine having the sun shining all year round. Well, not even all day around for that matter, actually. 

I: As I’m answering this, it’s a cloudless 27°C, and tomorrow will be a hot 40°C. I’m definitely no snow‑bunny.

O: Are you an avid reader? And what’s your favourite genre?

I: I used to be an avid reader before my first stroke 25 years ago. These days, I’m always busy writing, and everything takes me longer. By the time I finish my writing and blogging, I’m usually too tired to read.

O: And now a few personal ones:

a. Coffee or tea?

I: Coffee — especially at the Box Office Café. I’ll be having one there shortly.

b. Sweet or savoury?

I: The tooth‑fairies left me with a ravenous sweet tooth.

O: and oh sweet(tooth) boy, if I can relate!!!!!!!

c. Cows or horses?

I: When I walk Frankie past the horse paddock, the horses seem to think Frankie is a very small horse… and Frankie thinks, “Wow, that’s a very big dog!”   

O: That’s very funny, I love it.

Sadly, our chat came to an end , so dear Ivor, thank you for being with me today and up to you  to say goodbye to the readers your way.

I: As is my way, I’ll finish with a favourite piece of music: Lisa O’Neill – Come Sit Sing (Live at Other Voices Festival 2013). 

https://youtu.be/dVHgmbrpHtY?si=FlePkcHHmfBUlytr

Cheers

That is all for now, have a glorious day you all and don’t miss the next episode. And if in the meantime you want to catch up with all the chats just go to :

https://ortensia72.wordpress.com/chats-among-bloggers/

https://linktr.ee/TrulyMadlyOrdinary

From Austria With Love

I’ve been back from the holidays for a week now and already feel like it never happened, but it did!!! And we also had a little holiday during the holiday. We went, in fact, away to lovely Carinthia for a few days. It’s not a long drive from Venice, and the view through the mountains is exquisite.

We spent a day at the gorgeous Wörthersee lake; just a pity that, once there, I realised that I had forgotten my swimming gear. “ How could you forget your own swimsuit?” They patronizingly asked in unison, “Maybe because I was busy packing your bags? You ungrateful a……s ????” . Anyway, being me I refuse to let the little inconvenience ruin my day at the lake and I instead looked at it like destiny telling me I need to go to that gorgeous and costly but only little boutique by the lake and take possession of a new swimsuit and beach cover.

The night and the following day we spent them in Klagenfurt. It was “ferragosto” that for continental Europe is the biggest summer bank holiday and most shop were closed, that was good because I had already spent my souvenir budget on my unnecessary silk beach cover, but caffe and restaurant were opened and I could have my big slice of original Tyrolese apple strudel with whipped cream, while someone else was having his bratwurst and the other two “elses” were snapping TikTok videos around the old town.

Now, before moving on to our last day at the Hochosterwitz Castle, I must mentioned that beside having the most beautiful and enchanting(and never word was more appropriate) Magic Caffe, Klaghenfurt has also books vending machines and of course I had to try them, after all daughter number two is pretty fluent in German and money in books are always well spent right???? And we also convinced the travelling husband that they were not souvenirs so we could go over budget at the castle where, finally, we found some souvenir shops open.

Hochosterwitz Castle is one of the three castles around Klagenfurt and the most well-conserved. A proper castle built on a hill for defensive reasons, with gardens and rooms to visit and a nice museum about life in medieval days. We all enjoyed it and also managed to get a selfie with all four of us in it but, most importantly and very unusual, all four of us had our eyes open and were smiling. A real miracle, except I should have known that more than a divine sign was an omen for what was coming.

On our way back to Venice we stopped at the Pyramidenkogel, a 100-meter-tall wooden and steel structure with a 360-degree view of Lake Wörthersee and the surrounding landscape. Very impressive indeed; but was it worth the visit and the cost of the lift to go up? NO!!! And even less is it worth it the coming down with the zip line that was slow to the verge of boredom, but that was probably with the purpose to give the impression your money was well spent and you didn’t burn them in a flash of a second. Just an impression though!

But this was not what tainted our little holiday.

It all started to fall apart around lunch time when, despite the abundant and rich breakfast we had only a few hours prior, the travelling husband got hungry. Not very hungry, but hungry enough to stop and have something light and quick, he said.

He also said that he saw a nice place on our way to the Pyramidenkogel and wanted to go there. So we left behind the multitude of kiosks and bars and restaurants where all of us could have found what we wanted and we headed to “the place ” where he could have his light and quick lunch that, we found out only later, had to be a bratwurst. Quick maybe but arguably light. Anyway, a man has to do what gotta to do right? And like in Boston, where he committed himself to having at least a lobster roll a day, here he had to have at least a bratwurst a day and because we would have been back home for dinner this was his last chance.

We understood and decided to support him but when we reach ” the place” we drew a line.

Already from the parking area everything in that restaurant screamed “RUN!!!”. It might have had the best bratwursts in the world, but it also had at least a dozen families with not less than four kids each and of course, all the tables were overlooking the playground so that you could eat and keep an eye on your offspring while they were loudly abusing the ears of everybody around. Being the travelling husband of course he realised what a trap the place was but wouldn’t admit it and so he blamed us for the next half an hour we spent looking for a decent place to eat.

Half an hour in which, also with the complicity of the outside 35 degrees, the level of crankiness in the car rose worryingly and a couple of times I was threatened to be left behind.

Finally, we reached the other side of the lake where there were plenty of restaurants where we could all enjoy our lunch caressed by the breeze of the lake.

With great hopes and expectations, we sat at three different restaurants and left them all one after the other. NO BRATWURSTS!!!!

At that point, we would have happily drawn the line at the travelling husband too, but he had the car keys and so we had no other choice than to submit to his crazy search for bratwursts till he found where to get one.

And with their bellies satisfied, they drove home happy ever after.🥰

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