Intro| Awards | New books | Schedule for Next Year
December Garden - Seven Different Christmas trees; Herbs for Hot Weather; What to Plant Now, and Colour for Christmas | Recipes: White Christmas cake and Passionfruit Flummery
Intro
The wombats were right!
Way back at the beginning of the year the wombats started mating, the full yelling growling wombat way. It was the first time we’d heard shrieks in the night like that for six years ... or was it seven?
Those shrieks meant - rain.
And it has rained. Lovely gentle steady rain for months. And thanks to the wombats we ordered trees and flowers last winter to plant in spring (which we hadn’t, mostly for years). And now they are growing and everything is green. Not just green, but THICK green. I’d forgotten what really lush trees and grass looked like.
It’s a wonderful summer. Well, okay, some of the apricots have brown rot. And Fishtail the dopey lyrebird that we trapped and took three gullies away has finally found his way home again- he was back shrieking defiance at the dining room windows this morning, which will be a nice surprise for Bryan.
Bryan has been visiting his daughter all week, so tomorrow he’s going to be woken at 5 am by a maniac lyrebird trying to claw it’s way up the tin roof above the bedroom to attack the reflection in the top window.
I’m not sure if I should warn him, or hope he’ll sleep through it. (His train doesn’t get in till late tonight.)
Maybe it’s just that the cicadas have started yelling, but it suddenly feels like Christmas. Maybe it’s because I’ve finally finished correcting the page proofs for the next two books, and have done my last ‘away’ stint for the year, to launch the Early Childhood Development Programme in Launceston- which was wonderful, a superb programme and lovely horde of small kids who got so enthusiastic to borrow books they were almost mugging the librarians.
No more trips away now till late February. No more urgent deadlines till next year, unless it’s to have everything wrapped for Christmas. I’m possibly the worst wrapper in the universe- everything looks like a blob of paper held together with sticky tape, mostly because it IS a blob of paper held together with sticky tape.
Plus I have only just realized I have been misspelling many of my friend’s names for decades. That’s true friendship, I suppose- carefully not mentioning that your name has two 's’, not one, or one ‘f’ not two or no ‘e’ on the end of your name. My niece was 18 before she told me that I’d spelled her name differently every single birthday. It’s amazing just how many variations you can do on ’Makala’.
I have a feeling this will be a good Christmas, one to collect and keep in the back of my mind so I can take out the memories and relive them.
It’s been a good year, too. Happiness of all sorts for loved ones, and work that satisfies me more every year. And if that’s a bit non-specific...believe me, you don’t want me boring on and on with details. Trust me on this. (Once I start talking about work or family I’m hard to stop.)
For me the ‘true’ meaning of Christmas has always been pretty variable. Christ was born in Autumn, after all, not at Christmas time (the church changed the official birthday to coincide with old pagan mid winter festivals- which is why so many of our Christmas traditions are still pagan ones, like the ’12 days of Christmas’ and greenery and mistletoe.
Mostly for me Christmas has been a time to celebrate, well, whatever needs celebrating. A bit like the American Thanksgiving, I suppose. You just generally give thanks. And if the celebration includes the birth of a child and good and green things, then all the better. But mostly it’s a time to gather together with family- and like many ‘families’, ours includes people we are no legal or blood relation to. To put it simply, the ones we love.
And now ... well, according to the black wattle, it’s going to be a damper summer than usual, too- around here anyway. (There were hardly any black wattle flowers and seeds. When they DO seed well you know to watch out. There’s fire coming.) But the wombats are too fat and full of very green soft grass at the moment to do much predicting at all. Or busy looking after the young ones from last summer’s mating…
I haven’t noticed any snake necked turtles migrating uphill, so there probably won’t be a massive flood…in the next ten days, anyhow. And according to the ants…but ants aren’t reliable weather forecasters at all. They just predict when there’s a ‘low’; coming, not if it has any rain. And if you just want news about the ‘lows’, the weather bureau predictions are just a click away….
Ps And Merry Christmas one and all!
Awards
Two more awards and a short-listing this month. Diary of a Wombat had been voted ‘favourite book of 2007’ by the kids of the Northern Territory- the Kroc Award! And many many thanks for every one who voted, from Bruce and me and… I was going to say ' thanks from Mothball wombat, too.' but wombats don’t do thanks. They just chew your doormat.
'Slave Girl'- which is the name of the British edition of They Came in Viking Ships that won the Waybra Award in WA a couple of months ago, has been short listed for the Essex Literature award in the UK, and also the girls of Sutton Coldfield Grammar School voted it their favourite book of 2007. As their librarian, Mary-Anne Cox said, it may not be a big award, but it is lovely to know that it’s enjoyed across the world, too.
Mary-Anne Cox also said ‘I was surprised that Slave Girl came out as the winner - not that it is not good, but historical novels have not been popular with teenage girls for a long time. It would be nice if this changed things.’
I hope so too!
I’m not quite sure how many awards this makes this year- it’s been an embarrassing year award wise. One award per year can be boasted about. But mention any more and you’re, well, boasting.
(Ps this is not in any way suggesting I wouldn’t like to win more next year… truthfully I’m touched and proud and happy, and each award really does provide the inspiration to keep working)
New Books
The Shaggy Gully Times is still the most recent book.
This is the punniest book you’ll ever read, (I hope) all about the small bush town of Shaggy Gully, home to many animals such as celebrity ballerina Josephine, Pete the Sheep, who runs Shaun’s Sheep Salon, as well as Mothball Wombat, the editor of the weekly newspaper, who has a bit of trouble with her spilling, sorry, spelling.
Other recent books:
Pharaoh, an historical adventure based on the true story of the young man who united ancient Egypt into one nation
The Dog Who Loved a Queen: the true story of Mary Queen of Scot’s dog
My Pa the Polar Bear: the eighth of the Wacky Family books
Coming next year:
A Rose for the Anzac Boys - A big book for older readers- and I think possibly the best I’ve written. The sort of book it would have been impossible to write without the help of so many people- but more on that next year.
The Camel Who Crossed Australia: the true story of a camel on the Burke and Wills Expedition
The Wonderful World of Roos and Wallabies - more non-fiction, with everything from how to tell roo pellets from wallaby droppings to how to have both wallabies AND roses in the garden.
School for Heroes, Book 1 Boojum Bark and the Zombie Spaghetti - the first in a new and hilarious series about a werewolf hero, and a school that isn’t like any you’ve ever heard about before.
And another book of happiness and laughter with Bruce Whatley next November...I’ve done the words, he’s done the magic pics…but we still haven’t decided on a name!
Schedule for Next Year
Jan. 20. Stories at the National Museum of Australia, Canberra. See the Canberra Times or call the museum for details. (i.e. I don’t know what time I’m talking there yet!)
23/24 Feb 2008 International SCBWI and ASA Conference at The Hughenden, Sydney. Bruce Whatley and I will talk about the process of creating the WOMBAT picture books, and our wonderful editor Lisa Berryman (who is as much part of the books as Bruce and I) will chair the session.
April 22/23 a few talks in Brisbane
May 2 2008 CBC Conference Melbourne
July 25-29 2008 Byron Bay Writer’s Festival
August 17-19 2008 Book Week talks Adelaide
The Garden in December
Ah, this is the sort of summer when the garden just keeps giving. The avocado trees are weighed down with new fruit and the lemon trees going slightly yellow with too many lemons. And every day I peer out the spare room window and see how much bigger the bananas have grown. Not that I’m obsessed, mind you, but it has been…well, I’m not sure how many years since we had bananas. Our banana tree dies back every winter, but it gets lots of reflected heat and light from the roof (It’s a little up the hill from the house) so it’s really been the lack of water that’s held it back.
And the custard apple tree has a whole host of blooms (usually we only get one or two small fruit, which is still pretty good for a place that can get down to minus 9C- and anyway, neither of us like custard apples much. And lots of the rare fruits that have never bloomed before have doubled in size in the past three months and are flowering now.
Wacko!
So it’s asparagus for Christmas dinner, and something or other with apricots and peaches too- having grown up in an orchard my son prefers his peaches still crisp, not soft like you but them in the shop. (The ones he likes are still sweeter than the shop ones- peaches and apricots don’t get any sweeter once they’re picked, just softer. You THINK you’re buying ripe fruit, but you’re really just getting soft stuff.)
What was I saying? Ah, summer fruit. Which reminds me, must pick the red currants tomorrow before the birds get them first (They have plenty of loquats to eat, and I’d rather they never learnt that we’re growing red currants.) Note to self - pick them early, then. That way the brown snake who is lurking around the garden won’t be around either.
Seven ...Different… Christmas Trees
Tired of the old green and shaggy, but don’t want to go plastic? Try these instead!
. A dwarf lillypilly, with its bright pink new leaves – perfect in a pot, lovely in the ground. And drought hardy too!
. A N.S.W. Christmas bush, complete with its own bright red ‘decorations’. All it needs is tinsel!
. A bonsai Christmas tree. Bonsai look wonderful on the dining table – and there are some stunning ones around.
. A potted indoor Christmas tree. Any big lush indoor plant can look beautifully Christmassy with the right decorations – even the good old unkillable Kentia palm. And a strelitzia or ornamental banana can look incredible!
. An outdoor Christmas tree. Choose your favourite garden tree, and decorate it for Christmas, either with traditional tinsel, or lots of bird balls so the wildlife can join in the fun.
. A driftwood Christmas tree. Old bleached driftwood – or even prunings from your trees painted red, white or silver, can be turned into something simple but superb.
. An edible Christmas tree! A big pot of rosemary can work as a small tree for the Christmas table. But my favourite is an ornamental chilli. It comes with its own decorations!
P.S. The craziest Christmas tree I ever saw was a giant potted tomato bush, with tinsel draped between the bright red fruit!
What to plant in December
There is nothing- repeat, nothing- that has to be planted now. You already have enough to do in December! But if your green fingers are itching to get into the soil, try these:
Hot climates
Food plants: Choko, lemon grass, sweet potato and passionfruit vines, Jerusalem artichokes, paw paw and Cape gooseberry seeds. Also the seeds of artichokes, basil, beans, capsicum, carrots, celery, celtuce, chicory, eggplant, endive, fennel, tropical lettuce, melons, okra, parsley, peanuts, radish, rosellas, sweet corn, tomatoes and salad greens like mizuna and mitsuba.
Hot but not humid areas: cucumbers, melons, pumpkin, and beetroot
Plants for beauty: Seeds or seedlings of ageratum, alyssum, amaranthus, carnations, celosia, coleus, cosmos, dichondra, echinops, erigeron, gaillardia, gazania, gloxinia, gourds, hymenosporum, impatiens, nasturtiums, phlox and salvia.
Cold and Temperate:
Food garden: choko, strawberries; seeds of artichokes, asparagus, basil, beans, beetroot, broccoli, burdock, cabbage, capsicum, carrots, cauliflower, celery, celtuce, chicory, collards, coriander, corn salad, cress, cucumbers, eggplant, endive, fennel, kale, kohl rabi, leeks, lettuce, melons, okra, parsley, peanuts, pumpkin, radish, rosellas, salsify, scorzonera, sweet corn, tomatoes, turnips, salad greens, like mizuna and mitsuba, and zucchini.
Flower garden: Achillea, ageratum. Alstromeria, alyssum, amaranthus, aster, balsam, bellis perennis, bells of Ireland, brachycome, calendula, candytuft, Canterbury bells, carnation, celosia, clarkia, cleome, coleus, coreopsis, columbines, cosmos, delphinium, dichondra, echinacea, echinops, erigeron, euphorbia, foxglove, gaillardia, gazania, globe amaranth, gloxinia, godetia, gypsophila, helichrysum, heliotrope, hellebores, honesty, lavender, marigolds, nasturtium, petunia, phlox, Flanders poppy, portulaca, rudbeckia, salpiglossis, salvia, scabious, sweet william, viola, zinnia and snapdragons.
Some Great Hot Weather Herbs
Basil (Ocimum spp)
Annual, Perennial
Appearance: fragrant leafed bush
Which basil? Choose from bush basil, lettuce leafed basil, purple ruffles basil, Greek or perennial basil, sacred or Thai basil (another perennial) and many others
Needs: rich, well drained soil in full sunlight; MUST have good food- feed once a week. . Keep picking off basil flowers- once it goes to seed it stops producing leaves. Sow basil seeds in spring after frosts have finished and the daytime temperature has reached 20 C. In cold areas start seedlings indoors first and transplant.
Harvest: Glorious with tomatoes, essential for pesto and many other dishes. Basil leaves and stems can be picked as soon as they are big enough as long as you leave a few on the bush.
Chilli (Capsicum spp.)
Perennial in hot climates; annual in frosty areas. We grow perennial ‘lipstick’ chillies in a warm spot by the house, and perennial ‘bell peppers’ too.
Which chilli: There are hundreds of chilli varieties available, each with different levels of heat and different coloured or shaped fruit.
Needs: full sun, feed fortnightly; needs 5 hot months to crop.
Propagation: Sow seed in spring.
Harvest: Chillies can be harvested at any time - but the riper they are the sweeter or hotter they'll be and the longer they will last when dried. Thread chillies on a string or thick cotton and hang up to dry. They look lovely as garlands above a stove.
Use: Chilli gives heat and spice to many dishes - from chilli beans to curry.Add chilli powder to garden sprays to deter pests - including cats, dogs and possums.
Lemon Grass
Homegrown lemon grass is a joy – so much more fragrant than any you can buy.
Where to grow: Frost kills lemon grass, so grow it in pots in cold areas and bring it indoors in winter. Otherwise give it lots of sun and water, though it will survive drought too. One clump can be divided many plants.
How to use lemon grass:
. Keep a chilled bottle of lemon grass tea in the fridge to revive you after Christmas shopping.
.Use the soft white base in stir-fries, Thai dishes, and even fruit salads.
. Lemon grass leaves can be dried and woven into fragrant hats to help keep away flies and mozzies.
'Lemonade'
1 cup lemon grass, finely chopped
Half a cup boiling water
1 cup mineral or soda water, well chilled
Sugar to taste
Pour the boiling water over the lemon grass, leave to cool. Strain, sweeten to taste. Top with the soda water.
Lemon Grass Tea
1 cup lemon grass leaves, chopped
3 cups boiling water
Pour the water into the leaves. Leave for at least ten minutes. Reheat if necessary or leave to cool. Sweeten to taste, but you will probably find that you need no extra sweetening.
Parsley (Petroselinum crispum)
Biennial Parsley is a small bright green herb, with umbels of white flowers. There are several varieties commonly grown, though there are many other rare and excellent varieties. Parsley is said to have sprung up from the blood of the ancient Greek hero Archimedes and so athletic champions at the Isthmanian games were crowned with parsley. According to medieval legend, if you give a woman a bunch of parsley she will give birth within the year.
Curled Parsley (Petroselinum crispum)
This is the most common parsley. It isn't as hardy as the flat leafed varieties, though it is still very hardy indeed - ours freezes every winter's night and thaws quite happily the next day.
Curled parsley is the classic garnishing parsley, small curls of dark green.
Fern Leafed Parsley (P. crispum filicum)
This is a flat leafed parsley, more cold resistant than curled parsley.
Italian Parsley ( P. crispum neapolitanum)
This has flat leaves, almost like miniature celery. It is probably closest to wild parsley and the cultivated parsley that our ancestors enjoyed. It has a slightly sweeter taste than curled parsley - I prefer it for cooking, though curled parsley is best for chopping for garnish. Italian parsley may have originated in Sardinia. It dries well, in coarse flat flakes.
Japanese or Perennial Parsley (P sp. and Cryptoaenia japonica.)
There appear to be two perennial parsleys available, one a true parsley, which, though it goes to seed in its second year keeps sprouting new leaves and another 'perennial parsley' which is not a true parsley, Cryptoaenia japonica. Both are large leafed, hardy plants, coarser than curly leafed parsley.
Hamburg or Turnip Rooted Parsley (P. crispum var. tuberosum)
Hamburg parsley is grown mostly for the edible root, though the flat leaves are good, too. It is a true double purpose vegetable.
Eat it grated raw, with salad dressing; thinly sliced, or cooked in stews or stir-fried or dipped in batter. It is very good and tastes slightly like a cross between celery and potato.
Any parsley root can be eaten, not just that from Hamburg parsley.
Needs: Parsley needs good rich soil and plenty of moisture to produce rich green prolific stems - though a stunted yellowish bush will grow almost anywhere (even in the worst droughts here the parsley has survived - it just looked a bit weary - and the Italian parsley began to colonise the bare patches where the grass had withered in the heat). Parsley is a great standby when the weather is too hot, cold, dry or wet for lettuce - eat tabbouli instead.
Parsley will grow in semi-shade - and in hot conditions or dry weather it is best to grow it in semi-shade anyway. Moisture stressed parsley can be attacked by aphids or develop root rot when it is watered again.
Parsley is a biennial - it goes to seed in its second year - but you can make it a short-lived perennial by cutting off the seeds heads as soon as they form. You may not feel this is worthwhile, though - the stems get very woody, and far less parsley is produced. Fresh parsley grows very rapidly and you should be able to pick it a few weeks after the seedlings have emerged.
Hamburg parsley needs to be sown into rich deep soil so the root grows quickly - if it grows slowly it will be tough. Though Hamburg parsley is incredibly drought resistant, the roots become tough unless the plant is well watered.
Propagation: Sow parsley seed as soon as the soil feels warm. According to legend, they should be sown on Good Friday to bring good fortune and prosperity. This may be linked to the superstition that parsley seed goes to the devil and back six times before it germinates - which is why it takes so long. The devil is supposed to be absent from the world on Good Friday.
Parsley seed does need a long time to germinate - at least three weeks. You can hurry this up by soaking seed the night before or pouring hot water over the seed bed or by wrapping the seed in a warm wet towel (keep the towel by the heater or a sunny window sill) till the first few seeds germinate - but the best way to ensure good germination is to have fresh seed. Parsley seed should only be kept a year or at the most two - and a lot of commercial seed is older than this. I find that fresh seed also germinates faster.
Let your parsley go to seed for two or three years in a row, and you should have plenty of self-sown parsley plants around your garden.
Harvest: Parsley leaves can be picked as soon as they are big enough. Pick them often to encourage more small tender leaves.
Tarragon (Artemisia dracunculus)
Perennial
Tarragon has thin green stems and thin green leaves, growing from 30 cm to a metre with tiny greenish white flowers.
Though for culinary purposes most people describe their tarragon as being either 'French' or 'Russian', there is some disagreement about whether they are both variants of A dracunculus, or if Russian tarragon is A dracunculoides.
French tarragon is the one you want for cooking - sweet, fragrant and with an almost aniseed flavour. Russian tarragon is much more vigorous, taller and hardy, but just tastes vaguely 'green.' Beware of any nursery pot that's simply labelled 'tarragon' - smell it before you buy it. A good tarragon leaf should be strong enough to numb your tongue when you chew it. If your tarragon grows knee high and starts spreading all over the place you know it's Russian tarragon.
Needs: Russian tarragon will grow almost anywhere. French tarragon likes fertile, moist soil, full sun and dislikes other plants around it or humidity. It will die down in cold winters. Tarragon won't grow well in hot areas - it needs at least a few months of cool weather or it will become straggly, prone to mildew and may die back.
Tarragon benefits from frequent harvesting (you of course benefit too.) In hot areas, especially, prune it back severely every few months to encourage strong new growth.
If you are growing tarragon indoors take it out occasionally to refresh it. Tarragon often becomes unthrifty after a few years. Try a yearly mulch of good compost or cutting it back and replanting it every three years or so or take new cuttings every five years.
Propagation: Packets of tarragon seed nearly always contain Russian tarragon seed - even if they promise the herb inside is wonderful with chicken, eggs or what have you. French tarragon rarely sets seed. Divide larger plants in early spring as soon as you see new shoots or take soft tip cuttings, also in spring, about as long as your fingertip or take stem cuttings in early summer.
These need care to strike - place them carefully in moist sand, and leave them for two or three months till new growth is established. Transfer them to a pot of soil, and then plant them out in the garden next spring.
Harvest:Tarragon leaves can be picked as soon as the plant is big enough. Dried tarragon loses most its fragrance and subtlety.
Question of the Month
Christmas Flower Power!
My garden always looks dismal in December, just when I want it to look its best at Christmas! What flowers really look good?
Annuals give you most flower power at this time of year- petunias, helichrysum, marigolds (tagetes and calendula), cosmos and coreopsis. Or try a giant bed of the new long-flowering varieties of purple, blue or white agapanthus.
Shasta daisies (Chrysanthemum maximum) are reliable bloomers around Christmas, too. Try a big vase of NSW Christmas bush with some lovely shaggy Shasta daisies for a fabulous in red, green and white look for Christmas.
A Couple of Christmas Recipes
White Christmas Cake
Some people- strange creatures- don’t like fruit cake. Our family are great fruit cake munchers. But it has been politely pointed out to me that if we’re going to eat Christmas pudding this year (we are great pudding eaters too) then, to put it bluntly, you can have too much of a good thing i.e. rich fruity mixtures.
And anyway we’ve been eating fruit cake all winter...and to be honest fruit cake goes better with cold winds than humid afternoons.
So here is an alternative. I first ate it at my ex mother in law’s Christmas table, but never asked her for the recipe. After a few years’ experimenting I think this might finally be it.
This cake really is superb: rich, buttery and moist. But make sure you don't use all self-raising flour, or it'll be too dry.
You can eat it plain, or pour on hot lemon syrup and make it a lemon syrup cake. But add almond essence and crystallized fruit instead, and you have something very very Christmassy.
You can also serve it with stewed fruit as dessert: try slicing the cake on a platter, pouring on the apricots of cherries, then drizzling the whole lot with thick king island cream, or mascarpone cheese mixed with pouring cream, or creamy natural yoghurt.
200 gm butter
2/3 cup castor sugar
3 eggs
3/4 cups plain flour
3/4 cup self Raising flour
Optional:
1 cup red and green crystallized cherries, and /or
Half cup ground almonds or
1 cup chopped macadamias
Note: if you are not using the lemon lime option, you can add 1 tsp almond essence too.
Beat butter and sugar till soft. Add eggs one by one- don't add another till the first is well beaten in. Gently mix in the flours and other ingredients.
Line a large cake tin (or two smaller tins) with two layers of baking paper. Pour in the battler. Bake at 150 C for 1 hour.
Lemon or Lime syrup
1 cup lime/lemon juice
1 cup castor sugar
Half cup water
Bring to the boil when you take the cake out of the oven. Leave the cake in its tin. Simmer 5 minutes while you poke holes in the cake. Pour the hot syrup on the still warm cake. Leave it in the tin to soak up syrup for at least half an hour.
Stewed Apricots or Cherries
Fruit, with or without seeds (Seeds need to be spat out, but they do give extra flavour)
1 tb castor sugar for every cup of fruit
1 tb water for every cup of fruit.
Optional: 1 tb Cointreau, or kirsch for every cup of fruit. A tb of port can be used with cherries, in which case add it with the water.
Place sugar in pan; add water then fruit. Simmer at a VERY LOW heat, stirring often, till the fruit just softens. Add cointreau or kirsch.
How to Make a Passionfruit Flummery
When I was a kid we ate Flummery. Flummery is a dessert that looks as if it should be rich and creamy, but isn’t- no cream, and no sugar if you want to leave it out. It’s a bit like a rich light mousse, but has no egg yolks either.
Which meant in the days before fridges it as the perfect pud- most of the ingredients were home grown, and you could set it on the back step if the dog didn’t stick his nose in first. (You learnt to check for stray whiskers.)
Place in a saucepan:
3 tsp gelatine
Half a cup sugar (can be omitted or use substitute)
2 level tb plain flour
_ cup water.
Stir well. Simmer till thick- a couple of minutes.
Take off the heat. Stir in:
1 cup fresh orange juice (not from navel oranges- it turns bitter)
2/3 cup passionfruit pulp (or squished other fruit)
Leave till nearly set.
Now- and this is the secret that turns flummery light and cream- beat with an electric beater or egg beater for ten minutes, till it's very very light and creamy. Now pour into six glasses. Leave till set in a cool place i.e. the back step or better still, a fridge for half an hour or so. Cover with plastic wrap if you want to keep it a few days.
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