The Office of Silly Ideas | Wombat News | Book News...including project material for kids on MacBeth and Son | Schedule for the next few Months | The June Garden | What to Plant | When Gardeners go Barking Mad | A Passion for Parsley (How to grow it plus a couple of good recipes) | Fruit jellies (the lolly kind) | something sweet and mostly good for you
The Office of Silly Ideas
I’ve just come back from the Sydney Writer’s Festival, ideas spreading everywhere like honey on toast, except I didn’t get to hear most of it (or for that matter get time to eat honey on toast, or anything other than a gulped bowl of porridge at the hotel) as I was one of three authors dashing to Wollongong, Parramatta and Newcastle for the Kid’s Big Night Out. Which was fun, exhausting (for the kids too I think- it’s a BIG night out for the under five’s) and magically organised, with every microphone working, every chair in place, every event on time...trust me, for kids’ events, that’s a miracle.
I don’t go to Sydney often. I don’t go ANYWHERE often, to town every couple of weeks and to speak somewhere maybe once a month.
And every time I leave the valley the city world seems just a bit grimmer.
Traffic snailing down the tunnels (people pay money to creep through traffic fumes???) Supermarkets where no one makes eye contact in case the person at the wall of cereals is an axe murderer...
Yes, there was so much that was beautiful, the harbour, the sandstone buildings, the kids, but all of the beautiful stuff was old, except the kids of course...and I bet if some politician thought they could save ten cents per child he’d have them standardised with plastic optional extras too. (You want knees with that? Another $10 please.)
I was trying to think of some simple answer to it all on the way home. And I think I’ve got it.
It’s called the Office of Silly Ideas.
Every government decision- like spending $4 billion on an advertising campaign instead of better teacher education, or laptops for kids, or a council approving a hideous building that hides the beach or selling public land to developers…can be appealed. It just needs 1,000 signatures to get it to the office of Silly Ideas.
And the officers at the office would look at the proposal and say ‘what would the REASONABLE man think of this?’
And if the reasonable man...or woman...or wombat...would think: this is barking crazy, then the Office of Silly ideas would throw the project out and call ‘next!’
Of course any decision by the Office of Silly Ideas could be appealed against too. And if six decisions by any Officer were held to be silly then that officer would be rejected too….
Next!
Back Home
Anyhow, it was good to be home. I slept 11 hours, kicked the accumulated wombat droppings off front step, walked up mountain, walked down the mountain, checked on Feisty wombat (he's dug another barrow load of dirt out again) , said hello to the autumn forests of tree dahlias- not quite as many flowers as it's too cold for new ones to open, but they are too tall to be affected by last week’s minor frosts.
Even more trees had changed colour while I’d been away- the ginko is the clearest most stunning yellow, like sunlight on the tree. And the house was as cold as it always is in autumn- thick walls work well in summer and winter, but at the change of season the house soon cools down if we're not here to open doors to the sunlight or have a fire going at night.
Bryan apologised to the chooks, who hadn't been let out for four days and let him know it. But we'd loaded them up with good chook type stuff while we were away, lots of greenery and extra corn as well as their regular rations.
Just can't say how good it is to be back! Will attack a small slice of the accumulated two boxes of mail after I’ve written this, then make some soup for lunch, a nice spiced dhal and veg one I think. And then Bryan will be back from town with the local gossip we've missed while we've been away.
Wombat news.
Feisty is now, well, Feisty. Probably from all the oats I’ve been feeding him. When he first came here he hid his droppings under the bushes like a baby wombat. Now he proudly leaves them on the front steps every morning. AND he had a snarling match with Mothball.
Neither won. They just sniffed each other for a minute or so then decided to eat the grass at opposite ends of the garden.
New Books
Pharaoh : the boy who conquered the Nile is still the most recent novel. It’s a bit like ‘They Came on Viking Ships’- adventure, romance but also a glimpse of one of the most fascinating times in history, when humans were meeting the challenge of global warming and a world that was drying up, and coming up with new solutions…like farming, irrigation, writing so that the new knowledge could be passed on.
Wacky Families: the most recent book is My Pa the Polar Bear. All families are wacky in their own way. But when your pa wants to be a polar bear, your mum dressed up as a rhinoscerous and your sister is a tap dancing giraffe your family might just be a little wackier than most.
The Dog Who Loved a Queen has gone to the printers! It’s the next in the Animal Stars series and will be out in August!
MacBeth and Son
Once a book has been short listed for the CBC Awards, your average author starts getting letters (often with sparkles pasted on the envelope) emails and notes passed on from the fruit shop owner’s mother’s niece, asking for details for school projects. So okay. Here are the answers!
How did I feel when I wrote the book? Busy. Happy. Frustrated. Having fun. Maybe hot and maybe cold. It was three years ago so I can’t remember!
How did I happen to write the book?
Answer 1. I’m a writer. It’s my job. And it seemed like a good idea at the time.
Answer 2. Many years ago (okay, decades ago) when I was in year 11 I applied for the part of the Third Witch in MacBeth. I don’t think anyone knew how old I was- they got a shock when I turned up for rehearsals in school uniform.
Anyhow, the play was magic. Watching actors turn a few words into another world; being able to talk theatre and plays with adults, who didn’t talk down to me as a kid. Just listening every night to the words of Shakespeare still whispering across the centuries.
I loved it all.
Then a few years ago, researching something quite different, I came across an account of MacBeth- the real MacBeth- written long before Shakespeare. And I realised that every word of that brillante play was wrong.
I started really researching. I discovered it wasn’t just a mistake, either- Shakespeare probably deliberately lied about MacBeth to please the king. The play that I adored was written for money, to please a king, for political propaganda.
But did it matter?
My first impulse was to say ‘no’. But what if I wrote a play about John Howard, about how he was so brave he fought off the invading New Zealanders on the beaches of Surfers Paradise; or so evil he killed his entire cabinet. Neither would be true…but would it matter if it were a brilliant play?
I think it WOULD matter. Our society is based on truth, on trust. Every time a politician lies…or just doesn’t tell the whole truth about what they really intend and why…. Every time an advertisement bends reality to make their product look better than it is, the bonds that hold us together fray a little more.
And that is where the book came from.
And the book’s blurb . . .
Luke lives in modern-day Australia with his mother and stepfather, Sam. Luke is burdened by a guilty secret: Sam has helped him to cheat in an entrance exam for a prestigious school.
Lulach lives in eleventh-century Scotland with his mother and stepfather, Macbeth, who becomes a great king and restores peace to the land.
Luke is studying Shakespeare’s play Macbeth at school and dreams about Lulach and Macbeth at night. But gradually Luke realizes they are more than dreams. Somehow, he is reliving events that actually took place – and they’re nothing like Shakespeare’s version. In the play, Macbeth is a villain who murders the rightful king.
Why did Shakespeare lie about who Macbeth really was? Does truth really matter? As the lives of Luke and Lulach intertwine, the answers to these questions will change them both forever.
Schedule for the Next Few Months
2-4 July SLANZA Conference (School Library Association of New Zealand Aotearoa)
5 July Adelaide: International Library Association Dinner
August, 2007: Book Week talks in Sydney (just a few) Contact Lateral Learning for details (bookings@laterallearning.com.au).
13-16 September Albany Writer’s Festival, W.A.
17- 18 September: talks and workshop at the Fremantle Children’s literature Centre, W.A., including a workshop on how to use the picture books like Diary of a Wombat and Josephine Wants to Dance, and the historical novels like MacBeth and Son and Pharaoh in the classroom.
Sunday 4 November Open Garden Workshops at our place…rain, hail or drought these will go ahead, even if someone has to wheelchair me around the garden with a broken leg!
Ps I’m sorry- really sorry- that I can’t do more than one trip away from home these days. I would love to read stories at your preschool, or open your fete, or give a garden workshop. But I get about ten requests like that a week- and often much more. Sometimes I can’t even cope with writing back with apologies for events I can’t do. So please do understand if I can’t come to your event - or if it takes me a few months to get to your letter (assuming the wombat doesn’t chew it up first).
June in the Garden
The avocadoes are fat (so are the bower birds). The navel oranges have turned brilliant orange, and the birds haven’t found the kiwi fruit that have intertwined in the juniper trees...or maybe they don’t like the prickles. Parrots foiled again!
What to plant:
Flower garden: advanced seedlings of white and purple alyssum, calendulas, everlasting daisies, Iceland poppies, pansies, primulas, violas, wallflowers, cuttings of lavender, wormwood, daisies and native shrubs,
Frost free areas only: coleus, gerberas, impatiens, nasturtiums, petunias, zinnias, ornamental shrubs
Tucker garden: broad bean seed, broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage seedlings, winter lettuce seedlings, radish, spinach, garlic cloves (press them point upwards into the soil), artichoke suckers
Frost-free areas only: any veg you can get your hands on! Plus fruit trees and passionfruit vines too.
Pottering in June
. June is the perfect 'let's organise the garden' month. Summer's heat has vanished and the worst of winter hasn't arrived. This is the time for working out exactly what your garden needs- a lily pond, a swing or tamarillo along the shady bit by the side of the house .
. spray the leaves of indoor ferns- they dry out quickly once you start heating the house
. dig up dahlia tubers from large clumps; start another dahlia bed or give the extras away to friends
. mooch around garden centres, nearby streets and parks to choose the best winter flowering grevilleas, wattles or early camellias for your area
. don't waste autumn leaves! Compost them, mulch shrubs, or pile them where you want to make a new garden bed bin spring to kill the grass underneath. When the weather warms up plant seedlings through the mulch, with small guards made from cut off old plastic bottles to keep away the snails!
. hack back grape vines, especially if they look tatty and mildewed. You don't have to wait till grape vines have died off totally before pruning them.
. if beetles are bugging your plants, vacuum them off. If the cord won't reach invest in a portable car vacuum cleaner. Dispose of vacuumed beetles thoughtfully!
When Gardeners Go Barking Mad
It was only today, gazing out at our Japanese maples in the frost, that I realised you can tell how long a gardener has been getting their hands dirty by what they passionately adore in their garden.
Beginning gardeners go for flowers, all bright and glowing. More experienced gardeners start to think about the leaf colour. But you know you've really become a true gardener when you start appreciating bark. Just like Nichole Kidman would be gorgeous dressed in a doormat, many plants are stunning no matter what they wear.
I suppose appreciating bark is a bit like eating pumpkin- you try coaxing a toddler to eat pumpkin. But we experienced eaters start salivating at anything yellow. And it's the same with bark. You usually can't tell how glorious a plant's bark is going to be while it's young. You have to know what that dingy potted stick is going to look like when it's grown up, and trust in your gardening skills to get it there!
There is really an extraordinary range of different barks. I think my favourite has to be the dapples of spotted gum bark (Eucalyptus maculata), mostly because it's a treat to see it down the coast as we can't grow it in our frosty climate. The reds/pinks/creams of Smooth barked Apple (Angophora costata) are pretty stunning too. Other good warm climate 'bark trees' are Lemon scented gum ( Eucalyptus citriodora) with its fragrant lemon scented leaves, Snow in Summer or Melaleuca linariifoliua, or Water Gum, tristaniopsis laurina.
Water gum is often naturally multi trunked, with wonderfully mottled bark and massed yellow flowers in late summer. Water gums are nice small trees for small gardens, growing to about seven metres, evergreen, and native to Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria.
Possibly the most striking bark for cooler is that of the Paper Birch, Betula papyrifera, a close relative of the common Silver Birch (Which is pretty good bark wise too). Both need regular watering and won't take hot dry winds.
Or you might try Acer davidii, the Snake Barked Maple, with its white stripes down green bark, or the Paperbark Maple, Acer griseum, with its constantly peeling bark that shows the new reddish brown growth beneath. Both give stunning autumn colours too. But I love the bark of the common Japanese Maple too, lacy grey green with red stems.
The Tibetan Cherry (Prunus serrula) has small and not really spectacular flowers, but the bark looks like it's been French polished.
Then there's the Irish Strawberry tree, with its red and pink flaking bark- you often find it in gardens crammed with other shrubs, so the lovely dappled effect of the bark is lost. The Irish Strawberry tree tolerates both extreme cold and endless heat, and yes, you can eat the fruits but probably won't want to!
Decorative barks really need to be displayed properly- not swamped with leafy shrubs or distracting flowers. The old gardening rule of 'one gets lost, lots look great' really applies here. A copse of birch or maple trees looks are more effective than a lone tree. (You need at least three trees for a copse!) Most trees grow tall and straight when planted close together, or cut the young tree back to stimulate side shoots that will each develop into a trunk. (You need to have a lot of gardening confidence when you do this- I'm still terrified each time that the precious plant will die.)
The only real problem with being a bark lover is that you need patience. Any twit can bung in a punnet of pansies and they'll look great two weeks later. But you need at least two years for most barks to start showing their true colours- or sheens and ripples, anyway.
But it's worth it. A grove of gorgeous barks looks stunning even in winter, when everything is bare. In fact it looks even better in winter, when there is nothing to distract you. I think I survived the last drought by being able to run my fingers over the wonderful twists and colours of our Japanese maples and thinking ' who cares about flowers and green leaves, this is beautiful.'
A Passion for Parsley
I love parsley. I love eating it chopped into almost anything- if you’ve ever wondered how to get a kid to eat their greens, just bung on chopped parsley. (I even made green icing for a Technicolor birthday cake with it once, though admittedly that wasn’t for it’s nutritional value.)
Parsley is also wonderful as a green froth to edge flower beds or vegie gardens. In fact even if you couldn’t eat it, I’d grow it for it’s curly charm.
But it’s also the most reliable veg in my garden. Parsley is a great standby when the weather is too hot, cold, dry or wet for lettuce - eat tabouli instead. We use about 20 plants a year, not just for ourselves but to give bunches to friends too- crisper and sweeter than anything they can buy in the supermarket. And it just GROWS, surviving drought flood and grasshopper plague.
Which parsley?
Curled Parsley (Petroselinum crispum)
This is the most common parsley. It isn't as hardy in cold and heat 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 a 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.
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.
How to grow parsley
Plant parsley at any warmish time of year. If you can sit on the ground without freezing your bum, it’s okay for parsley. Beware though- it’ll take about three week to germinate, so have patience- and make sure the spot where you plant it is weed free, or they’ll suffocate the seedlings before they can establish.
Parsley grows best good rich soil with plenty of moisture, but you’ll get a stunted bush almost anywhere, as long as the soil is well drained. (If it’s not the long roots will rot and your parsley will yellow and die.) Moisture stressed parsley can be attacked by aphids or develop root rot when it is watered again.
Parsley will grow in full sun to semi-shade - and in hot conditions or dry weather it is best to grow it in semi-shade anyway. 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 worth while, 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.
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.
When to eat your crop
Parsley leaves can be picked as soon as they are big enough. Pick them often to encourage more small tender leaves.
Parsley can be dried. This is better than no parsley at all, but no where near as good as fresh parsley. To dry your own parsley (which will taste much better than the elderly stuff you buy) place branches in a warm, but not hot, oven, and leave till crisp. (Parsley cooks in a hot oven, and the taste changes dramatically.)
Now crumble it, and pack it into jars or envelopes.
Another method is to pre-chop your parsley and dry it in small pieces. This is faster, though more work, and gives a better result.
You can also hang bunches of parsley to dry in a warm, airy place - but the faster parsley dries the better it is.
Every bit of parsley is edible - the leaves, the stalks (treat them like thin celery) the roots (use them like small celery-tasting parsnips) and the seeds. (Use them like celery tasting poppy seeds - lovely sprinkled on cakes.) Parsley accentuates other flavours - which is why it is so good in sauces and stuffings and stews and soups - but it has an excellent flavour in its own right as well. Parsley is also said to be an aid to digestion, and to relieve flatulence caused by overindulging in beans or Jerusalem artichokes or cucumbers.
Parsley Butter
Mix:
1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons butter.
A little garlic can also be added.
Keep in the fridge to harden again. Serve with boiled potatoes, on fried or steamed fish, steamed carrots, with boiled yabbies, with micro waved beetroot - in fact with most steamed or boiled vegetables, or fried meats or fish.
Tabouli
Combine:
3 cups roughly chopped parsley
1 cup soaked burghul or cracked wheat
a little chopped onion
2 cloves of crushed garlic
Dress with:
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice
salt to taste.
This salad should be served within an hour, or the burghul becomes soggy.
Pasta with parsley, tomatoes and lime
Ingredients:
500 gms spaghetti, boiled till al dente
three quarters of a cup olive oil
6 tablespoons parsley, finely chopped
rind of 1 lime, finely grated (no white)
3 dessertspoons sun dried tomatoes, chopped
1 chilli, chopped
Pour the oil into a pan, add all the ingredients except the spaghetti and the lime rind. Heat gently for five minutes. Mix with the spaghetti and scatter the lime rind on top.
Fruit Jellies: a Little of what you fancy can be good, sticky fun
There are times when all of us feel the need to nibble on something sweet. The ancient Greeks ate lollies made from roasted sesame and poppy seeds, with crushed nuts and boiled honey, and lovely sticky sweet things they are too.
Medieval lollies included a rather yummy one of pine nuts, ginger, breadcrumbs and clear honey, all boiled till it hardened, and Queen Elizabeth the first guzzled sweets made of almonds, egg white, lavender and cherry stones.
`When Nostradamus wasn't prophesising, he nibbled on candied lemon peel, or candied thistle root, or cherries, or alkanet roots, which he claimed ' makes (a person) cheerful and happy, drives away all melancholy, rejuvenates people, slows down the aging process, imparts a healthy colour to the face, keeps a person in good health and stops him from getting angry. '
A few lollies occasionally are very nice things, especially if you're 'feeling melancholy'. So I make fruit jellies. The trouble is that though today’s lollies LOOK good they taste, well, all pretty much the same.
So I invented these. They taste like jelly beans and jelly snakes and jelly babies SHOULD taste- the way you keep thinking they'll taste from their lovely bright colours but never do.
These lollies actually do taste of fruit, because that's what's in them. No preservatives, no artificial colours, no stabilisers- you know exactly what's in these little darlings when you feed the to your kids, or your guests after dinner, or scoff a few when you need a touch of rejuvenation and slowing down the aging process, just like Nostradamus said.
These lollies are also a good simple recipe for kids to make, as long as you keep an eye on them to make sure they don't tip bubbling fruit juice all over them, or burn the house down or tread on the cat or accidentally add a cup of salt or any of the other zillion things that can go wrong when you cook with kids. But on the other hand kids do need to learn about stoves and cooking- and even better, how to make something really good to share with their friends.
Blueberry (or Raspberry) and Lime Fruit Jellies
You need:
1 cup apple juice
1 packet frozen blueberries (or raspberries)
half a cup of lime juice
1 cup of sugar (or less- your choice)
2 tsp tartaric acid
half a cup gelatine, pectin or seaweed based setting agent- gelatine is cheaper but the others taste better
Simmer everything except the gelatine, pectin or seaweed based setting agent for half an hour. Strain.
Now add a little of the juice to the gelatine or other setting mix; mix it into the rest of the juice. Pour it onto a tray covered in baking paper, and wait for it to set.
Now cut into little squares, or diamonds, or long jelly snakes- you can give them a pair of eyes with a bit of candied peel if you like, and use a knife to cut a pattern into the 'snakeskin'. Store between baking paper in a cool dry place for a day or two, but not too long- remember they don't have any preservatives in them. Throw them out if they start growing mould or look odd.
Otherwise, give to your kids for a treat, or better still, get them into the kitchen making their own, because once they get used to a genuine fruit flavour in their lollies, they won't want to go back to artificial flavours.
|
