About Anna

Short version;  Christian, Writer, English teacher, librarian, dog owner, no longer Brit in Austria! I think the blog title is still good, it just has another sense…

Long Version; We moved from the United Kingdom to Austria in 2007, after much prayer and planning.We became members of the local Protestant church which had its head firmly planted in the concrete. We had planned to work as Missionaries but it just didn’t seem to be right for us.  God used the time in Austria to feed us through the media ministries of many television evangelists – the best of whom are Andrew Wommack and Joyce Meyer.  I’ve learnt so much and I’m using this Blog to share what I’ve learnt and how I’ve applied it to my life.

We have two kids, our daughter is a Nurse and our son works as an Electrical engineer on railways.  I have an Honours degree from the Open University in English and History. I went back to work once the kids were old enough to be left to wreck the house on their own and worked in Fine Art Insurance then in Riding therapy for six years. I’ve always been into horses (pony mad kid!) and to work with teenagers with learning difficulties was a dream job.  During this time my mother died, the dog died, daughter went to University, son was rarely at home, and I was banging my head against a brick wall in my job as I’d stupidly moved into more office work. We tested the call to move to Austria and I gave the love and work with horses back to God when we left England only to have it given back.  I worked teaching riding  (which was a great way to have to improve my German) for two years.  In my last summer, my boss (75!) suffered severe injuries in riding accident leaving me to run the yard.  By the spring I was burnt out. So I left the horses behind and had many jobs, including working as a cleaner in the local castle, Finstergruen, for a local business, and other hotels and a disastrous job teaching English.  All of which is detailed (often painfully)  in the blog! I then helped Dave with the business with holiday homes, home tutored in English, and re-trained as a TEFL teacher. I also trained and ran the village library, which I loved, especially buying books, even if they were in German.

During this time I began writing, beginning with this blog and then a bookk review blog, which is noe Anna’s Horse Books.  You can see the books on the banner. Castles in the Air is a romanced version of my time working with horses in Austria.  All the books have a Christian message. There is also a supernatural thriller, Tom and my memoirs.  

I had suffered from homesickness every time we returned from the UK, and fought it tooth and nail. It was because of this that after 8 years, we got Swingle who brought us much joy and penury!  Then came Brexit… Just before Covid struck, we both finally said that we’d had enough of the travelling home, and wanted to stay put. Our house hunt and return to Wales is all here.

It’s now 2022, I love being home, its been an utter relief to be home, and moving into semi retirement, I’m looking forward to finding an art class as I’d love to paint but am frustrated by my lack of technique. I’m also going to volunteer with Riding for the Disabled, back to the ponies. Oh, and horse shows, tractor festivals, books festivals, car boot sales, National trust properties, visiting friends without having to fly…