Intro: Why the World Needs Half Hour Showers | Book News
Schedule for 2008 | The January garden…
. Storm warning
. Do you have a friendly garden?
. How to Grow a Happiness garden
A Few Recipes - cold delicious fruit frappes.
Why Australia Needs Half Hour Showers.
I came face to face with a wallaby this morning. I suddenly looked up and there it was, it’s whiskers about 10cm from my nose.
It gave one short bound then ignored me. I kept on walking up the mountain.
No, it wasn’t a tame wallaby- I don’t think we’ve even met before. It wasn’t scared of me partly because of the way I was walking, steadily and evenly, not pausing as though to think ‘aha! Who are you and can I eat you for breakfast.
But mostly it was because of my hat.
It’s a big floppy hat with a wide brim. Which means that when I’m walking with my head down animals can’t see my face.
I have a predator’s face. My eyes are close together, like a wolf’s, or a lion’s, or dogs or cats- meat eaters, animals who need to look forward and judge distance to catch their prey. It doesn’t matter what I smell like, or even that I’ve never eaten wallaby in my life. If wallaby’s see my eyes they think: run.
Grass eaters eyes are on the side of their heads, so they have a wide view of anything likely to eat them. Wallabies have eyes like that, and so do cows and horses.
Cars have headlights like human eyes- big bright unwinking eyes that stare ahead. Those two bright terrifying predator car eyes are one of the reasons why kangaroos dash out onto the road and are run over. And the big long tunnel in the darkness is one of the reasons why drivers don’t see kangaroos about to leap from the side of the road.
If we redesigned our cars- had a ring of lights around the front of our cars- they wouldn’t look as frightening- and we’d be able to see the edges of the road at night too, not just the road ahead. But somehow I can’t see any car company- or any government- making the change.
It’s easier to think ‘it’s impossible’, that there’s nothing we can do about the thousands of animals that die every day on our roads.
It’s a nice word, ‘impossible’. It means that you don’t have to try to do something.
Even this Christmas one of our visitors declared ‘Of course it’s still impossible to manage just with solar power. ‘
‘Nonsense’ I said. (New Year’s resolution: must try to be just a bit more tactful.)’ I’ve lived with photovoltaic power for over a quarter of a century.’
They stared at me, then at the Christmas dinner, then at the kitchen with the icecream machine, the fridge, the fan, the microwave… ‘You mean you’re not connected to the grid at all?”
‘Nope.’
‘Isn’t it a lot of work?’
‘Nope. ‘
They thought for a moment.’ You mean you didn’t get the blackout last week?”:
‘Nope. I haven’t had a blackout for 25 years.’
‘But you can’t run an aluminium refinery on solar power...’
‘Why not?’
Of course one of the reasons we can run a house just on solar power is because the house and our appliances are designed so they don’t use a lot of power. But if I were building a house again (which I profoundly hope I’ll never have to do) I’d do it very differently. I’d make it fireproof, for a start.
Yes, you can build a house- a nice normal looking house- that won’t burn down in a bushfire, and will stay much the same temperature winter and summer with no added heating or cooling.
Yes, you can grow a garden- including half your own food- even with the most severe of city water restrictions. (Hells bells, there’ve been drought years here when that amount of water has seemed the height of luxury.) You can even have an hour long shower if you want to, because you don’t use ANY water when you shower- you just borrow it, so it either flows back into the water table, or even better, is recycled onto your fruit trees.
The world needs longer showers! Showers are relaxing when you’re frazzled, stops your joints aching as you get older, and some of us get our best ideas when we shower too. The ‘4 minute shower’ campaign is great for governments who don’t want to spend money of proper water recycling and storage, but a short shower isn’t going to help the planet at all.
I’m a bit suspicious of a lot of so called ‘green tips’. Badly made backyard compost can lead to global warming methane and cockroaches (The methane is the global warming culprit, not the cockroaches). And sometimes keeping your old stuff is a heck of a lot more earth friendly than buying new ‘green’ versions of cars or clothes.
A lot of ‘ green tips’ remind me a bit of a girl I knew back in the 1960’s. She decided not to eat any more chocolate till the Vietnam War ended.
It didn’t make any difference to the war of course. But she felt nice and virtuous because she was giving something up. Which is what most ‘green tips’; are meant to do- to make us feel virtuous about doing small things for the planet- recycling paper, or not having a good long fragrant soak- while we still roam the world for holidays and consume more household ‘goods’ (or bads, or just plain sillies)year.
It all gets back to that word ‘impossible’.
It IS possible to have a good rich life and not leave a heavy footprint on the world. And when you get to stare face to face with a wallaby in the morning mist, and pick peaches as you wander through the wildflowers on the way back- with a nice long hot (solar) shower waiting for you at home, then a boiled egg from spoiled chooks and fine fresh bread from the Matt’s Dojo bakery, followed by a peach so juicy it spurts onto the tablecloth (New Year’s resolution no 2: don’t be such a messy eater) it’s very hard to think why on earth you’d ever need a plasma TV, a karaoke machine, or worry about a few holes in the aging upholstery of your car….
Wombat News
They are fat. They are happy. There’s lot of soft rain fresh grass, the soil is moist and diggable, and the biggest wombat droppings I’ve ever seen on every rock around.
Just sometimes there’s a year of wombat paradise in this valley. And I think that this is it.
Book News
The Shaggy Gully Times is in the bookshops -the hilarious newspaper story of how a dancing kangaroo, a hairdressing sheep and a wombat who can’t spill, sorry, spell, rescue the zoo animals- and how the small community of Shaggy Gully welcomes the newcomers.
The Shaggy Gully Times is also a great way to show kids how newspapers (and communities) work. But hopefully kids will be laughing too much to realise they’re learning.
The final corrections have been done for a Rose for the Anzac Boys, too. It’s a special book. Yes, I know I write a lot of books, but this one is different. Difficult to write- and needed magic editing and research help to get it there. But worth the work.
It’s the story of three girls who volunteer in World War 1. But it’s also the story of the war, and the uncounted- literally- thousands of women volunteers who drove the trucks or carts, the ambulances, who fed the troops or…so many of the things that today’s professional armies do themselves. These women are the forgotten army- and by the time the war ended many were unstoppable, this stroppy bands who knew how to organise and get things done, who fought to get the vote for women in he UK, for free schools and libraries, and a hundred other causes. At times a Rose for the Anzac Boys is a grim book. But at it’s heart it’ a celebration.
The January garden
Storm warning!
January is a great time for gales, both with and without rain.
. Avoid trees planted in the lawn. They often blow over! The grass is watered often, and shallowly- and the trees roots are shallow too, and easily uprooted.
. Keep tall trees away from your house and power lines- or at least keep them pruned.
. Work out exactly WHAT will be damaged if any tree in your gardenfalls over
. Keep an eye on all tall trees near your house. Look out for rotten branches, or wood rot anywhere in the tree. If in doubt, call an expert- it’s better than a crushed house.
. Low growing shrubs are better able to survive strong winds than tall rounded ones.
. Thin out foliage and branches if possible to cut down wind resistance before a storm hits
. Hedges survive wind better than fences
. Lots of coastal palms will help break the force of the wind, and are easily replaced if they blow over. (But make sure they are far enough away so they don’t land on the house!)
. If a shrub or tree is uprooted you may be able to save it by replanting at once
. Deep mulch helps protect plants and soil from high winds and torrential rain
. Watch out for flimsy aluminium sheds, fences, hanging baskets, and pot plants and unsecured garden seats- they can all become lethal flying weapons!
Do you have a friendly garden?
Score (1) for each 'yes' answer!
Do you have:
. Outdoors chairs for nattering to friends?
. A birdbath for feathered visitors?
. A place where kids can play without being told to 'be careful of my petunias!'
. Rocks, walls or logs where lizards can sun bake?
. A tall tree to keep possums and birds happy?
. Flowers, cuttings, surplus tomatoes or spare bulbs to give away to friends?
. A green and blossoming front garden that helps to sooth and refresh passers by?
Score: 4 or more.... your life is full and generous- and so is your garden!
The Happiness Garden
There are many reasons to have a garden- because everyone other house in the street has one, to increase the value of you home when you sell it, or even to grow your own veg. But the best reason of all is simply to make yourself- and others- happy.
Humans really are happiest with growing things around them. Even office pot plants reduce the number of 'sickies' taken each year, while greenery in shopping centres cuts down the rate of vandalism. But I reckon that the average backyard has the greatest potential of all to simply make you...happy.
What things make people happy?
1. Greenery- lots and lots of green leaves.
Even though the modern trend is to large areas of paving and succulents- nice no care plants- it can't compete with a sheer abundance of GROWING stuff.
The solution?Plant LOTS of shrubs- ones that are suited to your area, so they don't need masses of water or attention. If you can see the fence, your garden is too bare.
If you do have large areas of paving, consider a pergola above them, with grapes or hops or kiwi fruit that will cover the area with greenery in summer and lose their leaves in winter. Of these, hops are the least messy, as the leaves wither up and mostly blow away, and kiwi fruit the most - their thick tough leaves drop through autumn and most of winter and the fruit can get a bit splodgy too.
2. Scent.
Most flower scents raise your spirits, but so does the smell of newly mown grass, wet leaves and all the million subliminal odours from a garden. (There is a theory that it's the lack of these smells as much as the lack of sunlight that may trigger seasonal depression in winter)
The solution? Plant shrubs to give you year round flowers- a selection of roses, late and early camellias, scented daphne and grevilleas will do it, but there are a thousand other choices. Plant pansies, primulas, Iceland poppies or calendulas for winter cheer, and any of the whole host of annuals you can choose in summer.
3. Colour.
All of us have our favourite colours, the ones we like to wear and are happiest around- and those are the colours you need in your garden.
You can find flowers and fruit in ANY colour if you look hard enough, even blue (Blue roses, cornflowers, the blue flowers of garlic chives...) I love purples, and deep purple red- which anyone would guess if they saw my collection of deep flushed roses and glorious purple bottlebrush in spring, not to mention the anise hyssop, the...well, that's enough of that.
The solution? Work out what colours you love best, and plant them! I don't just mean flowers here. Fruit gives colour too. Remember though that you may prefer different colours at different seasons- even I adore bright daffodil yellows and cumquat and calendula oranges in the miserable depths of winter and the cold winds of early spring.
4. Water.
The sound of water is relaxing, the smell of water lifts your spirits, the look of water- trickling splashing or birds playing in it or just drinking- is one of the joys of a good garden.
The solution? Well, I refuse to live anywhere without a pond(the wombats like it too), with a tiny fountain when we're not in drought. But even a birdbath will do the trick- or in extreme cases a garbage bin lid hanging from a branch and regularly filled with water. You can also buy tiny fountains- some solar powered- that recycle their water. Some are hideous, some simple and beautiful, some for outdoors hung on walls, and some for indoors. They range in price from about $60 to thousands.
5. Rocks
There is something solid and comforting about rocks: giant rocks as features in themselves, rock pools, rock paths, and rock walls.
The solution?Add rocks! You can buy excellent 'fake' rocks too, which normally I'd avoid like canned vegetable soup (the sludgy salty kind). But modern fake rocks really look like rocks! Plus they are cheaper, lighter, and you're not destroying the homes of lizards, and other beasties when they are removed from paddocks or creek beds.
Rock gardens are a great way to break up a boring flat bit of ground.Another word for rock garden is 'big pile of dirt with rocks attractively arranged in and around it'. Try a mound at the front of your garden, to help keep out traffic noise, or a formal 'wedding cake' design in the middle of the lawn.In fact just buzz off to the library and get a book on rock gardens for masses of ideas to choose from.
6. Something to pick
You only have to watch a child's face as they pick their first piece of 'real' fruit to realise we humans are really still hunters and gatherers, even if the only gathering we can do is in the backyard.
The solution? Grow some tucker- the easy care kind, like mulberry trees, passionfruit vines, kiwi fruit vines, lillypillies, or 'plant it and pick it' veg like Lovage (like a small, wild perennial celery) or watercress (keep this in a pot under your tap so it says moist. Good in salads, sandwiches and soups, but a bit too peppery if you use too much.)
Garlic chives are TOUGH, and unlike common chives don't die down in winter or shrivel in heat and drought. They are flatter and coarser than common chives, but great in stir fries, sandwiches and salads where you want an onion/garlic flavour.
Plant some Spring or bunching onions (Allium fistulosum) too. I rarely bother growing ordinary onions. If we want an onion flavour I pick a bunch of these and chop them fresh into salads or sauté till soft for other dishes. The clumps grow larger year by year, and tolerate sun or semi shade.
Mitsuba, or Japanese parsley (Cryptotaenia japonica) is mostly grown as an annual, but its really perennial- and will reseed itself happily too, coming up in bare spots all over the garden. It's like a very coarse parsley- chop the leaves and stems, and use in salads or stir-fries or anywhere you would use chopped parsley.The more you pick the more tender new leaves you get.
Add to that some easy herbs like oregano, rosemary, peppermint, pineapple mint, winter savoury, marjoram and thyme and you've got scents as well as tucker, and green leaves.
7. This one is up to you. What sort of garden do you dream about? A paradise of roses? Formal pools and topiary? A backyard cricket pitch?
The garden that you dream about is the one that will make you happy. So get daydreaming…
What to plant in January
Food garden:
Plants: strawberries, sweet potatoes, choko, herbs;
seeds: artichokes, asparagus, basil, beans, beetroot, burdock, cabbage, capsicum, carrots, celery, celtuce, chicory, corn salad, cress, cucumbers, eggplant, endive, fennel, kale, kohl rabi, leeks, lettuce (may not germinate over 26C), melons, okra, parsley, pumpkin, radish, salsify, scorzonera, sweet corn, tomatoes, turnips, salad greens like mizuna and mitsuba, and zucchini.
Flower garden: Autumn flowering bulbs like Autumn crocus, nerines, tuberoses, vallota lily, or Zephranthges plus seeds or seedlings of achillea, ageratum, alyssum, amaranthus, calendula, calceolaria, cleome, Iceland poppies, lunaria, lupins, nasturtiums, pansies, sunflowers, zinnias.
A Few Recipes
Fabulous Fruit Frappes
When I was a kid going into town on a hot summer’s day meant two things- a visit to Barker’s Bookshop, then pineapple crush at the café next door.
Pineapple crush was just that- crushed pineapple frozen to wonderful slurry in a tall cold glass. You ate it with a spoon, and then slurped the melted bits with a straw. The fibres caught in your teeth and nothing I ate as a kid was ever quite as wonderful.
Decades later I met my first fruit frappe, and the memories came flooding back. But no café fruit frappe is ever as rich and fruity as those pineapple crushes.
Unless you make your own. Which actually is easy- you don’t even need special equipment. Just a blender (hand held one is fine) or at a pinch a potato masher and a good strong hand.
Each of the recipes below serves four delicate appetites, or two greedy people.
Bountiful Berry Frappe
This is wonderful with home grown mulberries, but good with any berries, including strawberries, raspberries and blueberries, or a mix of several berries. Fresh berries are best, especially sun ripened home grown ones. But commercial frozen berries are better than no berries at all!
Ingredients
2 cups frozen berries
1 cup sugar syrup (see below) or apple juice
Blend or mash. Serve the slush at once in chilled glasses so it doesn’t melt too fast.
OR
Roll any amount of frozen berries in castor sugar. Blend- the moisture in the berries will provide the liquid. Eat at once.
Pineapple Crush
3 cups pineapple, peeled and cored
Half cup sugar syrup
Half cup water
3 mint leaves
Blend everything but the mint leaves. Place in a plastic container in the fridge and stir well every 20 minutes till slushy…or freeze entirely and leave out twenty minutes before you want to eat it, then mash well.
To serve: place a mint leaf in each glass and pour in the crush.
Glorious Red Cherry Frappe
Ingredients:
3 cups cherries, frozen
1 cup sugar syrup
Blend. Eat.
Adults only Apricot, Gin and Grapefruit Frappe
Ingredients:
3 cups apricots, stones removed
Juice of two grapefruit
2 cups sugar syrup
2 tb gin
Blend everything together. Place the result in a plastic container with a lid and freeze, stirring well every 20 minutes. Serve when just frozen.
If you make this the day before let it partially thaw then blend it again just before you eat it; otherwise the ice crystals will be hard and splintery rather than soft and slushy.
The Simplest Orange Frappe of All
Take a big ripe orange. Cut off the top like a lid- then put it back on the orange. Place the orange in the freezer overnight.
Take the lid off, and eat the contents of the orange with a spoon. The flesh will be all soft and sorbet like as you scrape it out ... and for the rest of the school holiday the kids will forget about iceblocks and bung oranges in the freezer instead.
Sugar Syrup
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
Juice of a lemon
Half level teaspoon tartaric acid
Boil the lot for five minutes. Use at once, or keep in a sealed container in the fridge for up to a week, or freeze for up to three months.
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