Intro | Wombat News | Hairy Nose day is Almost Here | A Letter to Chelsea | Recent Books | Schedule for the next 12 months
The May Garden
What to plant
Backyard Oranges and other Citrus all year round
A Few Recipes - Potato and Capsicum Tortilla | Eggs and Rice (one of my favourites) | Piperade: An egg and veg dish
Infallible and Incredibly Simple Rich and Moist Sticky Fruit Cake – no added sugar or butter | Bee stings – sweet and delicious
Intro
There are seasons in life when things are good, and this is one of them: the valley green, the creek clear and the pools still and deep; summers flowers blooming once again now the heat has vanished, the trees turning gold and red and orange in autumn, and a million yellow leaves drifting past my window.
The words on the screen for Down the Road to Gundagai almost seem as though the book has already be written and I’m just pulling it from the air, enjoying it as much or more than if I had the book to read. The wombats are fat and the birds are flying and the whole extended family seems happy and fulfilled in the extraordinarily diverse world we all have chosen.
Admittedly there are times when I wish our entire family all lived in the same street, and possibly even all worked for the firm of French French French French French French French French and French. Or at least were close enough to all meet each Sunday for lunch. But there are phones and email and weddings to share.
And other news? Somerset Festival on the Gold Coast was perfect, as it always is, and magic audiences of switched on kids and long conversations in the Green Room or over breakfast with other authors. The Children’s Festival at the Wheeler Centre in Melbourne was perfect in yet another way – Queensland tents full of kids are different from large, high-ceilinged Melbourne rooms of young people in a way I can’t define. There was also a session with Terry Denton at the Wheeler Centre on the Saturday that worked ... which may not sound like much but some sessions do, evoking things you’d never put into words before. (I blame it on Terry.)
But it was good to be in Melbourne again. It’s a city for mooching around. It’s taken me decades to learn the art of city mooching. I found a buckwheat soba noodle shop where the staff were all young, and all laughed as their hands moved among the vegetables and noodles, and possibly the best chocolate shop in the world. (On the other hand, there are roughly 50,000 best chocolate shops in the world). And a coffee shop the size of a broom cupboard where they remembered how I like my coffee from the second day onwards, and a book shop that’s a book shop, with shelves of books I’d ever seen in any catalogues or online and would never even have thought to look for them, which is exactly what a book shop should do. I also bought a black pair of pants and a black top, because nowhere does black like Melbourne, and two purple tops I fell in love with, which isn’t like me at all, except when I’m in Melbourne.
Of course my feet hurt for days afterwards – walking on pavement is hard when you are used to the uneven and softer ground of the bush, not to mention carrying several kilos of chocolate (no, not for me), several kilos of soba noodles (mostly for me) and 15 kilos of books which I can tell myself are essential for work when I get the credit card bill. And I slept for two days, just about, when I got back. But it was fun, and fascinating, even if I could never live in a city.
There’s no more travel now till the end of May, with the Sydney Writer’s Festival. I’m doing five days of school sessions, in Sydney, Penrith and Parramatta, and then a Sunday family session on Dancing with Dinosaurs to celebrate Dinosaurs Love Cheese at Walsh Bay on the Sunday. Have been practising the dinosaur song and dance act in preparation. Which will mean more sore feet.
PS Bring earplugs on Sunday if you don’t want to hear me sing.
Wombat News
Phil the wombat – the small recently released wombat who had major leg surgery – is still digging. There have been no more wheelbarrow loads each night though, just a few tea-cups full and lots of munching noises at night. Phil is a noisy eater. He has finally discovered the joys of scratching on the floor joist under our bed, too, like the other wombats who’ve lived in the hole before him, first Mothball, then her son, Bounce, and finally Phil.
Phil has also claimed the house by leaving his droppings at one metre intervals all around it. Our house is now officially Philville. Another wombat – different scent, different droppings – claimed my car two nights ago, leaving droppings all the way around it. Luckily wombats sleep during the day so I was able to borrow it to drive to Canberra and back.
It’s a good time to be a wombat here. The grass is lush, the creek is clear, the days are soft, with no frost or heat to spoil the quality of the grass.
Hairy Nosed Day
Hairy Nosed Day is on the 11th of May each year. Wear Whiskers for Wildlife next Hairy Nosed Day!
If you’d like to be a part of Hairy-Nosed Day send in a photo of you wearing a Hairy-Nose to http://www.wombatfoundation.com.au. There isn’t a pic of me in my hairy nose yet- must get onto it!
There is also a great resource link there about endangered species, including the hairy nosed wombat, for teachers. Check out the new Wombat Resources page too at www.wombatresources.com. There’s also a recipe for wombat truffles, in case you want to eat your way through hairy Nosed day.
Seriously, endangered species need our help, as there is very little indeed that comes from government. The Wombat Foundation, of which I’m a director, raises money for research into hairy nosed wombats. We still know so little about the native species of our land. But one thing the research has shown is that if you preserve the land they live in, make sure they have water, and keep them safe from predators, weeds that may kill them, or feral animals that will spread disease, they have the best chance of survival. Wild animals need wild land, not captive breeding programmes. Give them safe home, and they’ll do the breeding themselves.
To Chelsea (and many other Chelseas)
Dear Chelsea, thank you for your letter. I wish I could reply to it, but you didn’t add your address.
Every week I receive several ‘Chelsea’ letters, usually from young kids. Either there’s no address at all, or the wrong address – a reply gets sent back marked ‘Return to Sender’. It’s easy to transpose a postcode, especially for young kids.
So this is an apology … and a plea: if you’re sending me a letter, or know a child who is, could you make sure the address is included, and also that the sender’s name is clear – signatures can be hard to read. Even if it’s the second letter you or they have sent, I won’t have the previous letter to be able to look for an address: we’d need a vast warehouse to be able to keep all the mail, plus a couple of filing clerks to search the archives. There’s only one, with two tired hands.
Recent Awards and Shortlists
Pennies for Hitler and The Girl from Snowy River were made Notable Books in the Young Adult section of the recent CBCA Awards, and Pennies for Hitler was a Notable Book in the Younger Readers category. A Day to Remember, with Mark Wilson, was a Notable Book in the Picture Book category.
Pennies for Hitler and A Day to Remember have also been shortlisted for the CBC Book of the Year Awards to be announced in August. I am thrilled and honoured and more grateful than I can say to Mark – his illustrations are so powerful and profound it is still impossible to read the book quickly. Every image gives the most extraordinary insight into the decade it comes from and the people and stories behind it.
One of my favourite books ever was also shortlisted in the Younger Reader’s category, the brilliant The Pros and Cons of Being a Frog by the extraordinary Sue de Gennaro. It’s quirky and funny and profound and I deeply wish I’d had it to laugh at but also learn from when I was six. For all of us who are or were a bit different – or wanted the courage to be – this book is a an utter joy.
Book News
Dinosaurs Love Cheese is out!
Nina Rycroft has done brilliant and hilarious things with dinosaurs – and gorillas, zebras and giraffes, with a few camels too. It’s a complete joy. Some time in September or October the Lu Rees Archives at the University of Canberra will be featuring the book’s artwork in an exhibition as part of Canberra’s centenary celebrations, and Nina and I will talk about creating the book. It will be released next month, for everyone who loves dinosaurs (and cheese).
The Girl from Snowy River is out – the sequel to A Waltz for Matilda – and has just been made a CBC Notable book, as has Pennies for Hitler.
Pennies is a sort of sequel to Hitler’s Daughter. It answers the questions that were central to Hitler’s Daughter – how can someone like Hitler gain so much power and what can any one of us do about it. Hatred is contagious – and anyone who tries to make you angry is gaining power over you. But kindness is contagious too and, in the end perhaps, more powerful than hatred.
Diary of a Wombat
After eleven wonderful years Diary is finally going to be released in paperback. I hope Mothball wombat would approve. (I did show her a copy of the hardback book once. She sniffed at it but didn’t bite it, or me. I took that for approval.)
A Day to Remember :The Story of Anzac Day
This too was shortlisted for the CBC awards, and has been reprinted for this Anzac Day. Each time I read it, I find even more in the artwork. Mark Wilson’s images are extraordinary, capturing the hurt of a hundred years.
And the next books …
I have just finished the rewrite of Let the Land Speak: How the Land Shaped our Nation, coming out in October. It’s a history for adults, though younger readers may enjoy it too, about how the land itself shaped our history from 60,000 years ago and the first foot on the beach to the Eureka Stockade tomorrow. I’m now working on the rewrite of Down the Road to Gundagai, the third in the series that began with A Waltz for Matilda and The Girl from Snowy River. This book is set in 1932. The susso camps grow in the Depression and the soup kitchen lines grow longer. But at the circus there are dreams and spangles … and a mermaid on an elephant.
Schedule for the next 12 months
I’m afraid there’s not much else that can be fitted into this year, or for much of next year too. I’m so sorry – there are invitations to speak every day, or even six and, much as I’d love to, I can’t do more than a small number of them, especially if it involves a day’s travel to get there – and we are at least two hours away from just about anywhere. I’m only accepting about eight ‘away from home’ invitations a year now, which soon get filled up. Am also giving myself a year’s holiday from giving writing workshops. They are good to do, but they break my focus from whatever book I’m working on. There are so many requests for talks that for the next year, at any rate, workshops aren’t possible.
March onwards: Hitler’s Daughter: the Play, by the wonderful Monkey Baa Theatre for Young People tours the USA.
May 20-24: School days at the Sydney Writer’s Festival. Video conferences on Nanberry: Black Brother White and A Waltz for Matilda. Contact jacqui.barton@harpercollins.com.au
July 20/21: Bryan will be at Questacon, Canberra, as part of the Canberra centenary celebration talking about his days at the deep space tracking station. You can read about it in our book To the Moon and Back.
July 23-25: Talks in Brisbane. Contact Helen at Speaker’s Ink for bookings and details, though I think all sessions are booked out now.
August 18: Talks at the Australian Jewish Museum, Sydney.
August 19, 20, 21: Talks at Sydney schools (already booked).
9-11 September: Ipswich Festival, Queensland.
13-14 September: Celebrate Reading National Conference (Picture Books), Literature Centre, Fremantle, WA.
October: Children’s Day, Canberra.
November 9, 10: Open Garden Workshops here. Contact the Open Garden, who organise it, for bookings.
November 2: Opening paediatric conference, Canberra
November 13: Talk to Australian Society of Authors (ASA) members, Canberra, Gorman House, 6 pm. Contact the ASA for details.
March 29, 1014: Pete the Sheep, the Musical opens at the Lend Lease Theatre, Darling Harbour, with the magical Monkey Baa Theatre Company.
June 9-15, 2014: Darwin.
August, 2014: School talks in Geelong, Victoria. Contact Booked Out for bookings.
The April Garden
This is the magic time, a million gold leaves floating past my window with every breeze; buckets of crab apples to make jelly, small ones, giant ones, red ones, yellow ones and a sort of mottled green; fat pomegranates and avocado, the limes ripening and the medlars waiting for the first frost to make them tender.
I’ve been collecting jars for this year’s crab apple and medlar jellies. Also gloating over the hedges of bright salvia flowers, all the blues and pinks and oranges of summer giving a last brilliant autumn flush as the red pineapple sage and the pink fruit salad sage begin. The Buff Beauty roses are hanging in great fragrant clusters, and … well, it’s paradise. Paradise for wombats too, with lush grasses to much on as well as the odd windfall Lady Williams or French Crab apple.
Our vegie garden has been a complete mess for the last couple of months, due to a computer hard drive crash and a book deadline happening at more or less the same time. (Both doing well now, thank you). Anne came down last weekend and has the garden we call ‘the tiger pen’ – the fences are to keep wallabies out, not tigers in – looking wonderful, with cos lettuces growing almost visibly as we watch them. The other vegie garden is mostly perennial veg, and they survive despite the grass growing from the mulch before last. NB: Beware of introduced mulch. Our veg gardens were grass free till that lot came in. Now it’s hours of work to clear the gin/garden, and there’ll still be problems for a year or two. It was supposed to be nice lucerne mulch, too, but I suppose there was grass seeding in the paddock.
Backyard Oranges All Year Round
A happy orange tree can be the most beautiful shrub in your garden. The fruit glows orange among glossy, lush green leaves. A happy orange tree is naturally rounded, almost as though it’s manicured every day by a team of gardeners. It’s so lovely that you’d grow it as an ornamental, even if you couldn’t eat the fruit.
Sadly, very few people have ever seen a happy orange tree – or a contented lemon or mandarin tree. Most backyard citrus trees are poor, freckled, underfed beasties, their leaves drooping or yellowed and speckled with scale. Yet with a few easy tips anyone can have oranges all year round – and lemons, limes, mandarins, tangelos and even Buddha’s hand citrons too. Your citrus trees, too, can be as lovely as any rose or hibiscus – and will save you money too.
What to plant in May
Frost free and temperate:
Flowers: Ageratum, alyssum, aquilegia, Bellis perennis, calendula, candytuft, Canterbury bells, delphinium, honesty, forget-me-not, lupin, mignonette, pansy, primula, pansy, statice, strawflower (Helichrysum), stock, sweet pea, verbena, viola and wallflower.
Veg: Artichoke suckers, broad beans, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage and cauliflower seedlings, cress, winter lettuce seedlings, spring onions, onions, peas, radish, shallots, English spinach seedlings and potatoes in frost-free areas
Trees and shrubs: Lots! Try fruit trees and other evergreen trees and climbers.
Cold Areas (plants and seedlings only)
Flowers: Saponaria, carnation, gypsophila, pansies, primulas, polyanthus, violas and wallflowers.
Veg and fruit: Broad beans, rhubarb and asparagus crowns, strawberry plants, cress and onion seeds, shallot bulbs, English spinach, turnip and broccoli seedlings.
Four Steps to Perfect Citrus
1. Feed citrus at least twice a year. A starved citrus is an ugly one. Citrus need to be fed citrus food in spring and late summer, or mulched well with compost six times a year. Chook manure is good, too. If the older leaves are yellow, they need nitrogen. If the leaves are narrow, the trees needs phosphorous – basically, a good feed!
2. Mulch. Citrus are shallow rooted, so suffer when it’s hot and dry. But don’t mulch next to the trunk, or you may cause it to rot.
3. Water. Citrus need watering to flower and fruit well, and for bright glossy leaves.
4. Control sap-sucking pests FAST. Spray Pestoil, or a similar oil spray, on top and under leaves to suffocate rather than poison pests whenever you see small ‘scales’ or other pests appear on the leaves. These inject a toxin that causes the tree to die or turn yellow, as well as sucking its sap. Sapsuckers also exude (to use a polite word) sweet excretions for sooty mould to grow on – another bad look for your citrus. Control ants with a thick layer of grease around the base of the trunk.
Which citrus?
Every garden needs at least ten citrus trees, grown as a hedge perhaps, along the fence: six oranges, for year round fruit and juice, one Eureka lemon, and the others according to your fancy.
Oranges
Six orange tree varieties, all fruiting at slightly different times, will give you oranges every day of the year. We grow Valencias for autumn fruit, then early, medium and late navel oranges. If you have long hot summers, grow blood oranges, too, for their stunning colour. In cold climates, grow sour Seville oranges – they make the most fragrant marmalade and are superb sliced, scattered with sugar and eaten like grapefruit.
Mandarins
Mandarins are the perfect fruit for kids to pick on their way to school, to put in lunch boxes. Choose early (like Sunburst), medium/mid-season (like Emperor) and late varieties – (like Honey Murcott). Three trees will give you fruit most of the year round.
Grapefruit
To be honest I eat a grapefruit a year and have to give away the rest of the crop. But if you love grapefruit – or your family and friends like marmalade – then you’ll adore a fruit-laden tree. They fruit in winter, when a grapefruit grilled with caster sugar and a sprinkle of rum or gin is superb. They also make the most refreshing drink – about 75% grapefruit juice, stir in caster sugar to taste and top up with 25% soda water (or proportions to suit you and yours.
Tangelo
These are a delicious, thin-skinned, deep orange cross between a mandarin and a grapefruit – without the sickly sweetness of the one or the tartness of the other. They will tolerate light frost, and we have found them more drought resistant than oranges in the same area. They ripen here in late winter to early summer.
Tahitian Lime
Limes are luscious in lime pie, instead of vinegar in marinades and salad dressing and squeezed onto almost any baked vegetable. They are smallish trees, easily grown in pots in a sheltered courtyard or crammed between other trees. They fruit in winter. In cold climates don’t pick them till they turn yellow; in hot climates the fruit will stay green when ripe.
Kaffir Lime
Use the fragrant leaves in cooking; the warty fruit is dry but flavourful.
Cumquats and calamondins
True cumquats can be sweet – the sour ones are usually the hardier calamondins. Both make superb marmalade, or slice them thinly in salads or bake them with honey.
Bush lemon
‘Bush lemons’ often grow from the rootstock when a grafted citrus die. They are really citronelles: rough-skinned, many-seeded and thick-pithed. They are very drought and cold tolerant. If your area is too dry or cold for other citrus try a citronelle. Either grow it from seed or ask a nursery to get one in for you. As it is a common rootstock it should be easy to obtain at a year’s notice.
Chinotto
Chinotto are point-leafed, small trees and extremely ornamental. Their fruit juice is used for the Italian soft drink, slightly musty and delicious.
Native Citrus
We grow Desert Lime and Finger Lime, but there are also grafted crosses of native citrus with oranges and cumquats, fun to grow but still hard to find and expensive.
Citrus in Hot or Dry Areas
Citrus survive hot dry or humid climates, but they’ll need more feeding and pest control. Look for pomelo- like a giant grapefruit and kaffir limes, and ask your local nursery for the best varieties for your area
Citrus for Cold Climates
Grow your citrus against a north-facing wall, protected from cold winds. Use a tube of clear plastic sheeting to provide shelter during winter in the first two years, and to encourage growth in late autumn and early spring. To reduce frost damage, spray with seaweed spray. Give a sprinkle of potash or wood ash in late summer: potash deficient plants are more prone to frost damage.Don’t mulch around exposed trees in cold areas, as mulch will increase frost damage to the leaves.
Choose cold hardy varieties. Valencia oranges are more cold tolerant than Navels, and Seville oranges, though sourer, are more cold tolerant than Valencias. Eureka lemons are pretty cold hardy and fruit all year if picked regularly. Meyer lemons ARE NOT COLD HARDY AT ALL – ignore any book that says they are. But they are small, neat trees that can be grown in a large pot and taken indoors in winter. Thick-skinned Wheeny grapefruit are cold hardy, too. The bush lemon is the most cold hardy citrus of all. Also try thorny mandarins with their small, seedy fruit.
A Few Recipes
Potato and capsicum tortilla
Tortillas are what might be called well-stuffed Mexican omelettes. They are cooked on both sides.
Ingredients
2 dessertspoons olive oil
6 eggs
1 large potato, cooked
½ a red capsicum, cut into slivers
a little chopped red chilli, optional
Method
Take a good heavy pan; add half the oil. Sauté the onion and potato till the onion is cooked. Add the capsicum about a minute before you take the pan off the heat.
Beat the eggs well. Pour the potato mixture into the eggs; add more oil to the pan and heat it again – if it is cool then the tortilla will stick. Pour the egg and potato mixture into the hot pan. Cook for a couple of minutes till the bottom is browned – lift up the edges to see. Turn the tortilla over (this sounds easy but it isn’t – you need practice to get it over in one piece but two or three bits of tortilla taste as good as one big one, just not as neat. You can use a plate – slide the tortilla onto the plate then put the fry pan over the top of it and invert quickly and smoothly so that the tortilla lands topside down back in the fry pan – easier to do than describe.). Cook the other side till it too is brown; serve hot.
I like my tortilla with a fresh purée of tomatoes, to which I’ve added a little chilli and black pepper, and brown sugar if the tomatoes are pink rather than deep red.
Piperade
There are many versions of this dish, which is a sort of Basque omelette or scrambled eggs. Don’t bother to make this dish unless you have really good tomatoes.
Ingredients
6 eggs, beaten
olive oil
3 large onions, chopped
4 red capsicum, sliced
6 large, very red, ripe tomatoes
Method
Add the olive oil to the pan. Sauté the onion until transparent. Add the capsicum, cook for another 2 minutes, then add the tomatoes. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring so the mixture doesn’t stick. Pour in the beaten eggs. Don’t stir once the eggs are mixed with the vegetable purée. Just shake the pan as vigorously as you can. Take it off the heat when the eggs are nearly set. Don’t overcook.
Eggs and Rice
(one of my favourites)
Ingredients
4 tbsp olive oil or ghee
1 cup Basmati or other long grain rice
4 cups chicken stock or miso
½ cup parsley, chopped
6 tomatoes, peeled by covering with boiling water, then seeded then chopped
1 red onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 eggs
Method
Put a pan on low. Add oil or ghee. Sauté the onion and garlic till the onion is soft. Add the rice. Stir well on the low heat till the rice is well-coated and slightly transparent – about three minutes. Turn the heat onto high. Add a little stock at once, then the rest gradually, a bit at a time, so it never stops boiling. When all the stock is added, put in the tomatoes and parsley. When the liquid is nearly absorbed break the eggs onto the top of the rice. They will poach on top, with the whites firm in about two minutes. I prefer to eat mine with the yolks still liquid and the whites set, taking the pan off AS SOON as the whites are almost firm, as the eggs will keep cooking for several minutes in the heat of the rice.
Eat at once.
Infallible and Incredibly Simple Rich and Moist Sticky Fruit Cake – no added sugar or butter
Ingredients
1 cup dried pitted prunes
1 cup dried pitted dates
2 cups sultanas
½ cup marmalade OR 1 cup candied cumquats or cumquats in syrup
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 can condensed milk
about 300 gms plain flour
3 eggs
water
Method
Cover dried fruit with water. Boil till soft. This may take about half an hour and you may need to add more water. Mix in other ingredients, adding the flour last. You may need a bit more or less flour – depends how liquid your fruit mix is. It should be a fairly stiff cake batter, not too liquid or runny.
Pour into a pan lined with two layers of baking paper. The cake should only come halfway up the tin, or less if you want a ‘slice’ rather than a deep cake.
Cover pan with another sheet of baking paper. This cake can scorch on top if not covered.
Bake at 150 ºC for about 2½ hours or till firm and smelling divine.
Keep in a sealed container for weeks, or even months.
Note: To turn this into a Christmas cake, add 2 cups of crystallised cherries to the mix, or cherries and crystallised pineapple, place almonds or walnuts or macadamias in a pattern on the top before you bake it, and use half water and half whisky (or brandy or sherry) to stew the dried fruit. Whisky is best.
Bee Stings
Ingredients
200 gm butter/marg
1 tbsp finely grated orange rind
½ cup yoghurt
1 cup brown sugar
3 eggs
2 cups SR flour
½ cup or a little more orange juice
Syrup
½ cup honey
1 tsp finely grated orange rind
1 cup water
Method
Cream butter, rind and sugar; add eggs one by one; add flour, juice and yoghurt. Mix gently. Place in greased tray and bake for 30 mins or till golden brown at 200 ºC. Remove from oven and pour hot syrup on at once. Slice into squares. Store in a sealed container, away from bees.
If you want to be really luxurious, cut slices in half and spoon on honey sauce as well.
Syrup: Boil for 3 minutes.
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