It’s a short newsletter this month because
- I’m brain dead
- The trees have turned gold, there isn’t a cloud in the sky, and the shadows are going to turn cold and purple in an hour and a half and I want to get away from the computer and out in it all before the sun sinks behind the ridges; and
- I’m brain dead
I’m brain dead mostly because I’ve just been to Brisbane, which was wonderful, especially watching the moon rise along the river with Dad, and the schools I visited, each one wonderful and an inspiration, and the CBC Book launch of A Rose for the Anzac Boys by Lyn Linning, (which made me cry), and Dad having his first Japanese food at lunch and liking it so much that we went back there for dinner. (I didn’t tell him he’d eaten raw fish and seaweed till after the waitress fussed over him and he’d told her how much he’d liked it).
Come to think of it, I’m also brain dead because I’ve just come back from the CBC conference in Melbourne, All the Wild Wonders, and another book launch, by Pam MacIntyre, when I cried again and forgot to thank everyone and was so overcome that I sat down where the chair wasn’t and sprawled all over the floor. (I will never learn to be graceful, even if I live 150 years)
And also because I came home to find a savage Rottweiler had got loose from down the valley, had tried to savage Bryan and other people, and our extremely nice policeman was in Queanbeyan more than two hours away and couldn’t help, there’d been a mix up with my tax and super, plus 450 bulbs had been delivered (which seemed a really good idea at the time I ordered them).
Which is why I’m brain dead.
But the day is golden, and the bulbs are waiting to be planted, so here, very quickly, is the world’s fastest newsletter …
Wombat News
Big droppings. Small new tracks from a young wombat, but haven’t met him or her yet. New hole dug in the side of the cliff by a large wombat who is old enough to know better- he’s tried digging a hole there 7 times and the soil has collapsed every time.
Or maybe he’s just playing ‘ let the dirt fall down’.
Award News
Pharaoh has been short listed for the CBC Book of the Year, Older Readers;
the Shaggy Gully Times has been short listed for Book of the Year, Younger Readers. Shaggy Gully was made a Notable, too, in the Picture book Section.
And The Goat Who Sailed the World has been voted onto the shortlist of the Yabba Awards by the kids of Victoria...and many many thanks to everyone who voted! And Diary of a Wombat has been voted onto the shortlist of the Bilby Award by the kids of Queensland too… wish I could hug you all! (But not after I’ve been scratching wombats).
New Books
The latest is A Rose for the Anzac Boys, the story of three girls who leave school to help near the frontlines in World War 1. I’ve never said I’ve written a good book before. But this one at least comes close to answering the voices from the past who whisper ‘remember me.’
Coming soon: How High Can a Kangaroo Hop, illustrated by the brilliant Bruce Whatley (don’t need to tell you what that one is about) and then The Camel Who Crossed Australia, the story of the Burke and Wills expedition told by the camel, Bell Sing (also known as He Who Spits Further Than The Storm) and the ‘Afghan’ cameleer, Dost Mahomet. And then, (I feel there should be a burst of trumpets here…on second thoughts, make that tubas)… the new picture book with Bruce, Emily and the Big Bad Bunyip. It is funny and happy and silly and all good end of year things…but as well as that Bruce’s pictures are so beautiful they make me want to cry.
Again.
Schedule for This Year
I’m afraid I won’t be able to manage much more than the list below. (It doesn’t include trips away for things like dentist’s appointments, family affairs etc.) I usually receive at least one invitation to visit somewhere each day, sometimes more. Much as I’d love to, I just can’t do them all- or even most of them. Mostly I choose events with the biggest audience, and ones that don’t need more than 4 hours travel to get to.
Please forgive me if I can’t come to your town, school or event- it doesn’t mean I don’t want to. I wish I were superwoman, and could do them all, and respond to every request for help or mentoring too.
July 25-29: 2008 Byron Bay Writer’s Festival
August 17-19: 2008 Book Week talks Adelaide
August 25-27 Melbourne Writer’s Festival
September 16-20 Brisbane Writer’s Festival
Nov 16… Open Garden workshops at our place- contact the Open Garden Scheme (They take all the bookings and do all the arranging).
May Garden
This is the time to stop bashing away at the computer and just get out there. It’s the perfect garden mooching time, to plan all the glories for next summer in fruit and veg, and also to start on the sweaty things like new paths and garden seats it was too hot to even think about in summer.
It’s a time when the garden is full of small birds eating grass seeds and eastern spinebills dipping their beaks into the salvia flowers…. so okay, here are a few short bits and then I’m dashing out there…
What to plant:
Coastal and northern areas:
Flowers: (seeds in frost free areas; otherwise seedlings): 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, wallflower.
Veg: artichoke suckers, broad beans, broccoli/brussel sprouts/cabbage/cauliflower seedlings, cress, winter lettuce seedlings, spring onions, onions, peas, radish, shallots, English spinach seedlings, potatoes in frost-free areas
Trees and shrubs: citrus, avocadoes and other evergreen fruit trees, ornamental evergreens and evergreen climbers
Cold Areas:
Flowers (seedlings): saponaria, carnation, gypsophila, pansies, primulas, polyanthus, violas, wallflowers
Veg and fruit: broad beans, rhubarb and asparagus crowns, strawberry plants, cress and onion seeds, shallot bulbs, English spinach, turnip and broccoli seedlings
Windowsill Herbs
Most herbs need fresh air as well as sunlight - stick them near a window that you open often. With luck you can grow basil all year round - a luxury in cold winters; try coriander, oregano or marjoram, chives, chamomile (pick the fresh flowers for a relaxing tea - even if you don't like dried chamomile teabags (erk) you may love the taste of the fresh flowers), sage, thyme, rosemary (keep it well pruned by picking it regularly) or dwarf lavender (not above the sink though - it'll get mildew), mint (mints are great by a well lit bathroom window - the whole room smells of mint - but don't try it if you have frosted windows as they may not get enough light).
Most herbs need lots of heat and thrive by hot windowsills, but they won't take humidity, so keep them well watered but well aired, away from other pot plants with lots of moist foliage that might increase the humidity around them. With luck a VERY big pot of basil, tansy, feverfew or wormwood will help stop the flies from coming in.
Parsley is the perfect potted standby - even if it stops growing in winter outdoors it may still keep unfurling new greenery on a hot windowsill. I like to have parsley where I can grab it easily otherwise I forget to use it, which is a pity because even kids who don't like their greens will eat chopped parsley in other dishes. I nibble parsley toward the end of the month when I need a quick fix of iron. (Whenever I find myself gulping parsley I check the cupboard to see if I remembered tampons last time I was in town.)
As a general rule grow each herb in its own pot - some herbs can overwhelm others.
Herbs that naturally die down in winter they become unthrifty if kept unnaturally alive indoors. Take plants that require dormancy like your tarragon, turmeric, and ginseng et al outdoors for a month or two so they can get back into a natural seasonal rhythm.
Also - the more you pick your herbs the healthier they'll be - new growth is more disease resistant. This is yet another reason to use your herbs lavishly. After all, a garden on the windowsill is there to use, as well as to delight you.
Like a Date, Love?
When I was a kid I thought dates grew in sticky brown blobs, just like the stuff in packets Mum bought to make apple and date spread, and only grew in countries mentioned in the Bible.
Even today you rarely see date trees (Phoenix dactylifera) in garden nurseries, and few books on fruit growing even mention them, which is a pity, as date palms are one of the easiest trees in the world to grow, tolerating droughts that would drive a camel mad, salty soil, temporary floods, wind, and just about everything except heavy frost. They are even one of the few fruits that will survive in areas that are too arid or salt damaged for other fruits.
It's not as simple, sadly, to actually get a crop of dates from your tree - the fruit can rot in humidity, and in cold climates date palms may not fruit at all- or not in your lifetime, anyway. But date trees are still nice slim elegant trees for the back yard, as long as you keep pulling off the lower leaves as they die off, and at least you can hope that one day they may reward you!
How do you start with dates? First find your date trees. This may mean quite a bit of asking at nurseries, till you find one prepared to find a male and female date palm for you. Hopefully, these will be suckers from good bearing trees, and you’ll be able to choose which variety of date you want too.
Alternatively you can plant date seeds, though you won't know if the seedlings are male or female till the females fruit, and seedling fruit can be small or the trees may not bear for decades. Even two-year-old date seeds may germinate. Plant seedlings out when they are about 100cm, very carefully so you don't disturb the remnant of the seed.
Put your date palms in the sunniest, hottest, most well drained least humid spot you have. (I grow ours on a sunny northeast-facing slope, in sand and gravely soil). I meant to slip water filled 'frost bags' over our young date palms to protect them from frost, but didn't get around to it. The trees survived anyway, but to be safe do protect your trees from frost for the first two or three winters.
Water well till the trees are established. Dates are very, very drought tolerant, but while they won't die in dry soil they won't do much growing or fruiting either.
Date palms grow MUCH faster in hot climates. You'll have a nice looking tree within about six years up north; down in our cold hollow I suspect I'll be a great grandma before my date palms even think of bearing. In dry climates the fruit will ripen on the tree, but date farmers usually cover the ripening bunches of fruit with paper sleeves to protect them from rain, and after picking the fruit is heated to 45C with high humidity for a couple of days to remove any astringency. The fruit is then either packed fresh, or dried further to become the hard brown lumps you buy in packets.
Or forget about harvesting your own dates and grow some of the ornamental date palms- like the Canary Island date palm (Phoenix canariennsis), which grows happily even in frigid Canberra winters, or the Senegal date Palm (P reclinata) or the pygmy or dwarf date palm. (P roebelinii).
Eating: Fresh dates are much better than dried ones. Try fresh dates with a platter of cheeses. Dates are particularly wonderful with White Castello on good quality crackers. Or you can try:
Mum's Apple and Date Spread
2 cups dates, finely chopped
6 cups Granny smith apple, peeled cored and sliced
Juice of 1-2 lemons- optional
Half cup brown sugar- optional
This is one of the few things Mum used to make that was very good indeed- and very simple to prepare. Put all ingredients into a pan. Add a little water; simmer till the dates are soft and have blended with the apple. This will take about half an hour of simmering. Stir often and add more water as needed to stop it sticking.
The result will be a very thick brown sludge, wonderfully sweet and rich. Keep it in the fridge for up to a fortnight. We used to pile apple and date spread on fresh bread or scones instead of butter and jam, or even better, spoon it over a rice pudding or eat it with icecream.
Okay, I’ll be honest- I also used to eat most of it hot from the pan with a spoon.
Two More Recipes
Cauliflower Soup
P.s try this even if you or the kids hate cauliflower! It is good.
2 red onions, peeled and sliced
3 large carrots, peeled and sliced
2 potatoes, peeled and sliced
3 leeks peeled and sliced and toughest green bits thrown to the chooks
Half a large or 1 small cauliflower
6 cups chicken stock
Cream, or milk, optional
3-tb olive oil
Sauté the onions, leeks and carrot in the oil till the onions are soft. Add the stock, spuds and cauliflower. Boil till soft. Whiz with the blender, but leave it a bit lumpy- it's best with just a little texture. You can also mash it as much as you can be bothered. It’s really the spud and cauliflower than must be well mashed, not the other bits- it's the mashed spud and cauliflower that makes it creamy.
To serve. Heat but don't boil. Add milk and or cream till the soup is as thin or as thick as you like. (We like a thick soup for lunch, but a thin soup is better if it's the first course of a large dinner).
NB. This is a naturally creamy soup, even before you add the cream. It's perhaps best with no milk, just a tb of cream added before serving. But it's also good with no milk or cream at all, which is how I usually eat it.
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.
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