Introduction | New Books | Schedule for the Next Few Months |
Email Contact Details | What to Plant in March | Controlling the Dreaded Flower Flop! | Zen and the Art of Chocolate Cake
Teaching kids to Think about their Stories...I know I promised to include this in this newsletter, but I’ve run out of time and oomph! Next month, I promise!
It’s rained. And rained.
The first rain sent a flash flood down the gorge, all mud and logs and froth, a wall of water higher than I am and a roar like 1,000 helicopters. The flood went down 10 minutes later ... and the ground was still dry, baked so hard that almost no moisture penetrated.
But then it rained again... and again... thunderstorm after thunder storm.
I watched a puzzled echidna trying to dig for ants under 3 cm of water, and the lyrebirds dance along the fences. Rosie wallaby has even stopped eating roses, and is just munching grass- lovely soft green stuff that even tempts a blacktail wallaby who likes variety in her diet. And Mothball has given up biting any other creature- including me- that comes onto HER patch of grass, and just emerges from her hole to munch for a few hours then goes back to bed.
Since I last write here I’ve been to WA, mildly terrifying for someone who hates flying, and when the last plane I was in suddenly lost pressure, dived groundwards and limped along just above the trees.
This time I asked for tranquillisers so I wouldn’t scream every time we dropped 1,000 metres. First I’ve ever had, and my word they worked. A few bumps? Just like a merry go round...and yum, aeroplane food...
Even better, having flown without terror a few times I think I can risk going back into the sky now without them.
But WA was great. Flew to Newman for the Perth Writer’s Fest, red dust in every crevice and a horizon that went on forever and wonderful kindness and friendliness and fantastic audiences...one of which created the vision of Crusty the camel, who had once found half a can of beer in a waterhole and been inspired to find- or create- a perfect world, a place where a camel could get a cold beer. A Don Quixote camel, chasing his own holy grail across the desert....
I don’t think I’ll forget Crusty in a hurry. Or his creators.
And Perth was great, as it always is, and then to Brisbane for Dad’s 80th, which was everything an 80h birthday party ought to be, from Makala’s cake to the kids laughing in the darkness as they swung from the palm fronds and Spencer the Jack Russel going bananas behind the swimming pool fence because there were all these leftovers and he couldn’t get to any of them. Half way through the night Dad said ’I love everyone in this room, and everyone I love is here.’
Yes, just what a birthday party ought to be.
I got home just as it was growing dark on Sunday, and what had been green from the rain when I left had turned into a jungle, the kiwi fruit and passionfruit tendrils reaching for the windscreen as I drove in, and the creek bubbling in the background and the lyrebirds doing a final pre bed song, and the scent of ginger lilies thick enough to walk on.
And home now for the whole month, apart from two nights at the Blue Mountains. And water, water, water to plant things with.
New Books
None this month!
Pharaoh will come out next month- am watching the post for the first advance copy. It’s one of those special books, I think- one that you think afterwards ‘how on earth did that happen?’ But it worked.
I hope.
Last month Rotters and Squatters came out, the third in the Dinkum History history of Australia series. Gold Graves and Glory next.... And in January the 8th and final Wacky Family, My Pa the Polar Bear, mooched into the bookshops hunting for icebergs and fish sushi....
I’ve been doing the (almost) final revisions to The Shaggy Gully Times, due out in November. There’s this little town called Shaggy Gully, see, where Mothball Wombat and Pete the sheep live, and Josephine dances and the shearers buy their dog food. And this is it’s pewspaper, sorry, newspaper. (The Daggy Guppy Times’ editor needs a proof-reader who can spill....)
Also working on Baby Wombat Diary, the sequel to Diary of a Wombat. What is even stroppier than a wombat? A baby wombat...but for that you’ll have to wait till May next year.
Schedule for the Next Few Months
Sunday, March 11 Canberra, Australian Women’s Weekly Road Tour, talks at 3.30 and 4.30 on How to Speak Wombat and other Adventures, and How to Grow Just About Everything Without Water- or weeding, feeding or pruning
March 20 Melbourne keynote Address, National Community Gardens and Cityfarms Conference, Melbourne
March 24, 25 Blue Mountains Norman Lindsay Festival, Springwood, Blue Mountains NSW
April 1 Braidwood NSW Two Fires Festival: panel talk, but don’t know on what yet!
April 2007: Sorry, Open Garden Workshops at our place have been cancelled- it’s just been too dry, and I didn’t think our native grass could cope with lots of feet. Of course as soon as it was cancelled it rained, but the cancellation needed to be done as early as possible.
Tuesday 15 May 2007, Allwrite Festival, Adelaide
May 28 Sydney Writer’s Week Kid’s Big Night out: Parramatta
May 29 Sydney Writer’s Week Kid’s Big Night out: Wollongong
May 30 Sydney Writer’s Week Kid’s Big Night out: Sydney
May 31 Sydney Writer’s Week Kid’s Big Night out: Newcastle
... and another talk at the Festival; too, but not sure when yet...
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 and Melbourne (just a few) Contact Lateral Learning for details (bookings@laterallearning.com.au).
13-16 September Albany Writer’s Festival, W.A.
17 September: talks and workshop at the Fremantle Children’s literature Centre, W.A.
4 November Open Garden Workshops at our place...rain hail or drought these will go ahead, even if I have to video conference them from a hospital bed with a broken leg!
Email Contact Address
I’ve just been hooked up to a new email address, jackiefrench72@gmail.com
I’ve never given out my email address before – we have such poor phone lines out this way (curse Telstra forever) that our system just collapses if we get too many emails, or emails with lots of data, like big attachments, or, even worse, photos attached.
But this one is separate from my home and work system, so I’ll see how it goes. But please, please don’t send attachments or photos! And please, please don’t send me lots of questions where the answers are in my gardening books, or ask for material for school projects that’s already on jackiefrench.com. I’m not sure I can answer more queries than I do already! In fact I’m pretty sure I can’t.
And if you just want to say ‘hi’ or it isn’t urgent, please write the message in the guest book at jackiefrench.com, and I’ll answer when I check the messages once a month.
The address above is just if there’s something that’s urgent or that I really need to hear. If there are too many emails for our phone lines to cope (or me) with I’ll have to stop using it.
In the Garden in March
This is normally the ‘hells bells I don’t want to look at another apple’ time here. Not to mention all the other autumn fruits... olives, pomegranates, oranges, lemons, kumquats, figs, late peaches, late nectarines, passionfruit, pepino, babaco, paw paw or mountain paw paw, sapote,lte white mulberries, hazelnuts, almonds, orange, lemon, tamarillo, strawberries, raspberries, early quinces, early persimmons, pears, melons, pecans, bunya nuts, late grapes, banana passionfruit.....
Except I have never known such a bad fruit season- not just the dry, which we’ve had before, but two late November frosts that shrivelled all the fruit except on the trees deep in the groves. There were the birds, too. Normally we grow decoy fruits to keep the birds busy, but the frosts killed the decoys as well, so the birds had to either eat the apples et al, or starve.
Actually things aren’t too bad. The first limes are ripe, and the first new season avocados and the odd custard apple, lots of pomegranates, a few lemons, citronellas, mandarins, almonds though no pistachios, a crop of strawberry guava, which is odd as they should have fruited in late spring, poor confused things, some capulin cherries out of season too, strawberries, tamarillo, a few oranges, passionfruit and banana passionfruit, lots of macadamias, rhubarb which did nothing for the past eight month but sulk and wait for rain....
The veg garden has come to life again too, masses of tiny chokos and chilacayote melons starting to form- we eat the young ones like zucchini- and lots of green veg sprouting all by itself, and carrots appearing from nowhere, and celery and parsley which I though had died but didn’t, and chillies too.
I should have put in the winter veg last month, but there is still time now we have water to get a lot established. And with luck we will even have water to see them flourish through the winter.
And as for the rest- the naked ladies are blooming, glorious hardy flesh coloured things blooms that they are, big clumps all over the garden, and the ginger lilies flowering in the shade of the avocadoes and white birch, and the dahlias starting to perk up and give another burst of flowers.
It’s pretty good.
Jobs for March
. divide agapanthus and other large clumped plants. One big clump can give you twenty new plants!
. move shrubs and small trees while the weather is cool, but still arm enough for them to put out new roots
. take rose cuttings: - snappable wood about as long as you hand. Fill a box with clean sand and plant so just the top third is poking out. Keep moist and in semi shade; plant out your new roses next winter
. keep pots of succulents dryish- if they die over winter it may be too much moisture, rather than cold that kills them
. leave pumpkins in a sunny spot (ie the shed roof or on paving) for a few days to 'cure' so their skins will harden before storing them (on their sides- moisture collects in the tops and bottoms and the pumpkin may rot)
. pick off African violet, rex begonia, gloxinia, pepperomia leaves. Poke the leaves veins downwards into clean sand till the leaves are half covered New roots will form at the ends of the veins- and by next spring you'll have new plants to pot out.
. worried that your favourite plants may turn into weeds ? Go to www.weeds.org.au to find out what plants may become pests in your area
. Look for the quiet achievers: A good garden has plants that look good all year- not necessarily stunning bloomers, just trees and shrubs that give a garden shape and form. Autumn is a great time to mooch around your suburb, or visit local open gardens, and look at the 'background' plants- not the showy flowers, but the pleasantly shaped plants that should do well in your garden too.
Tired of straggly grass under trees? Replace it with:
. a bed of hellebores for winter flowers
. a mulch of bright pebbles or crushed rock
. a ground cover like yellow or pink flowered variegated lamium
. a wrap around garden seat
. half a dozen hydrangeas for a stunning summer display
What to Plant in March
Try coloured chard- just like silverbeet but with brilliant yellow pink or reed stems, long white radish- very mid tasting and fast growing ornamental kale- frilly and coloured but can be finely chopped to make a stunning coleslaw, sweet, tiny red mignonette lettuce, crisp fast growing Japanese turnips, LOTS of mitsuba, mizuna, Chinese celery and other fast growing green veg, plus....
Hot climates:
Plant to eat: garlic, macadamias, avocados, bananas, custard apples, lychees, sapodilla, star fruit, paw paws, mangoes, passionfruit, citrus, strawberry plants, capsicum, carrots, chilli, cauliflowers, eggplant, okra, potatoes, silver beet, sweet corn, zucchini.
Plants for beauty: hibiscus bushes, calendula, poppy, primula, snapdragon, sunflower, salvias; fill bare spots with ferns.
Temperate:
Plants to eat: garlic, macadamias, avocado trees, citrus, strawberries, beetroot, broccoli, broad beans, cabbage, carrots (mini or 'French round' carrots mature fastest), cauliflower, garlic, leeks, parsnips, spinach, celery, fast maturing Asian veg like tatsoi, pak choi and mitsuba.
Plants for beauty: bulbs, including liliums, agapanthus, iris; multi stemmed jonquils, heat hardy tulip varieties, flowers like alyssum, dianthus, pansies, primulas, salvias, poppies, sweet peas, stock. Grevilleas for nectar for the birds (Superb and Robyn Gordon and her relatives bloom throughout the year)
Cold climates:
Plants to eat: garlic, strawberry runners, broad beans, spinach, onions, seedlings of broccoli, cauliflower, Brussel sprouts, fast maturing Asian veg like tasto, pak choi and mitsuba.
Plants for beauty: bulbs like daffodils, jonquils, tulips, anemones, hyacinths, freesias, ranunculi, seedlings of Iceland poppy, primulas, pansies, polyanthus, sweet peas.
Controlling the dreaded flower flop!
Question: How can I get my flower arrangements to look more professional? Mine flop all over the place!
Answer: Okay, I admit I am not the world's most artistic flower arranger but ANYONE can get a professional florist's look for their flowers once they've acquired a few professional accessories! All can be bought from most garden centres and florists.
Oasis foam: This is firm green sponge. Cut it to shape, place it in a bowl, dish or basket lined with plastic wrap, then poke the flower stems into it. They'll stay put perfectly! (Not suitable for soft stemmed flowers though - they break.
If you desperately want to arrange soft stemmed flowers in Oasis use a skewer, chopstick or other handy implement to make a hole first and then gently push your stem into the foam block.)
Glass marbles. Fill glass vases with these, then poke in flower stems. Once again, the flowers stay exactly where you put them!
Florists wire. This is great for stems that want to go THAT way, not your way and long stemmed flowers like roses and tulips that may droop.
Zen and the art of Chocolate Cake
This is a confession. I don’t eat cake.
I love making cake though. And I love serving it to people and watching them enjoying eating it.
There is something meditative about making a cake. Not the first ten times or so, when you’re wondering how it will turn out. But after that you fall into a rhythm where it’s your hands not your brain...
...there’s the beating of the butter and the sugar, realising all the tensions of the last three days. Then more beating with the eggs, and then the gentler time, folding in the other ingredients.
... and then the world softens even more as you wait to smell it in the oven, just sitting waiting for that first rich caramel sniff. And the burst of exultation that comes when you create anything, book or garden, and see the cake come out of the oven.
And then the serving, and the talking as everybody eats.
Somehow chocolate cake is special, too - a good chocolate cake. Not the ‘all puff and goo’ sort of chocolate cake, made with self raising flour and cocoa, which should be arrested for false pretences, or the chocolate mud cake, which looks like it should be chocolate heaven but instead tastes well, lets say calling it a mud cake is no false pretence at all.
This chocolate cake is a good one. It’s VERY chocolaty, very moist, lasts for ten days in a sealed container.
Superb Rich and Very Chocolate Cake
You need two bowls for this.
200 gm good dark chocolate
250 gm butter
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
100 gm ground almonds
7 egg yolks
7 egg whites, whipped till stiff
4 tsp vanilla essence OR 2 tb kalua
100 gm plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
quarter cup cocoa
Put oven onto moderate- about 175C- before you start.
Melt chocolate in one of the bowls in the microwave or over a saucepan of water on low heat on the stove. Take off heat. Add butter. Beat well till all totally mixed. Add sugar. Beat well. Add egg yolks. Beat well.
Add everything else except the egg whites. Mix gently. Add egg whites. Mix in even more gently- do NOT beat too much at this stage!
Place in one large or two smaller cake tins. Mix should about 2/3rds fill the tin. If there's any left make a few muffins later. Silicon coated tins are easiest to use as the mix won't stick. I use my old tins lined with baking paper, or you can coat the inside in butter then dust on flour- make sure there are no gaps.
Bake 1 1/2- 2 hours. Cake is ready when the kitchen has smelled of chocolate for about ten minutes and the top springs back when you press it gently with your index finger. (Index fingers are slightly more calloused than the others so you won't burn yourself).
Take it out of the oven. Leave cake in its tin for ten minutes before you turn it out very very carefully.
Dust with icing sugar, or ice it when it's cold.
Rich Choc Icing
2 1/2 cups icing sugar
100 gm dark chocolate, melted
water or Kahlua
Mix chocolate and icing sugar. It will look lumpy- don't worry. Add a tb of water or Kahlua and mix well. keep adding more liquid in tiny amounts and mixing till it's all smooth. Don't add more liquid than you absolutely need or it will be too runny, but if you do, add more icing sugar.
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