Jackie's March message continued . . .
This is a confession. Mothball wombat is no longer
AT ALL like the sweet cheeky wombat in Diary of a
Wombat.
Mothball is now the size of a dwarf hippopotomous, with shoulders like a
sumo wrestlers and a bite like an angry tyranosaurus rex. She had a go at me
last night, just becuase I was two minutes late pouring her
rolled oats into her dish.
Luckily her teeth missed my hand and tore the rolled oats bag instead,
so she was covered in rolled oats and so was the doormat.
I could have swept them up neatly for her, but I didn't, just let her
grovel for them on the doormat and took another bowl of oats out for Pretty
Face, who is a sweet and very
polite little wombat who just waits on the doormat hoping we'll bring out some
treats. She stands up to Mothball though: shrieks at her till she backs away.
We've also renamed Mothball's baby. It's now called Hark, because
whenever we hear the back door being shredded I say 'Hark, the wombat!'
So Hark the Wombat now
lives in the hole behind my study, and is getting bigger and fatter. Another
month of grass munching and she will be
able to roll down the hill.
Because it's rained. And rained. And rained. Everything is green,
including the flower pots that have grown all lichened and the white tee shirt
I accidentally left on the line. It's all one shade of green too, a fresh new
green instead of the thousand shades of green normally in the
valley.
I've gone very slightly bezerk planting things. It was a strain the past
year not being able to plant anything at all- usually I plant a few things
every week.
It's all drought proof stuff now though. Things that died in the drought
won't be replaced. No more waratahs, or bottlebrush, proteas on sandy
soil, or bog sage, ginseng or
Corsican mint. But many things I thought had karked it are coming back again-
an avocado tree that lost it's leaves six months ago is covered in new leaves,
and so are the hibiscus and one of the bottlebrush at
least.
Most of the fruit fell off
the trees months ago, but what's left is swelling beautifully- avocadoes, kiwi
fruit, several sorts of lillypillies, green and chocolate sapotes, strawberry
guava, pomegranates, medlars, limes,
a few oranges. No apples though, or pears. I think it's the first time
for 30 years we don't have home grown apples. I'm having to buy veg too, and
that's HARD, as I have no idea how much to buy.
How many zuchinni do we eat a week? I don't know. I'm used to just
eating what I want to and giving the rest to the chooks.
Anyway, the wombats all have diahorea (I can't spell that! It
should be spelt 'dire rear') and
are munching the grass almost as fast as it grows, which is Olympic munching
speed.
And the kangaroos have leapt back up the mountain- they don't like being down in the valley,
and the wallabies are getting fatter by the minute and the Eastern Spinebills
are sticking their beaks into all the new flowers as though to say 'at
last! this is what life should be
like!' And I
agree.
A Wombat Joke!
One day a lady found a wombat on the side of the road, so she took it to
the police station. A police man said to take the wombat to the zoo. The next
day the police man saw the lady and the wombat walking along the side of the
road. I thought I told you take that wombat to the zoo he said the lady said, I did and today we are
going to the movies.
Megan, 13
ps Anyone have any more wombat jokes???? There must be
some!!!!!!
Books
I'm not exactly sure what book is coming out this month. I THINK it's
Big Burps, Bare Bums and other bad mannered blunders- Aunt Jackie's Guide to
Behaving almost Perfectly. But I haven't seen a copy of it yet, and I have got
copies of Valley of Gold Š they're bothing coming out in the next few weeks
anyway, as well as The Black House (Koala books), Vampire Slugs on Callisto
(the third and funniest in the Callisto series) and Pigs don't Fly and Bears
Don't Bounce, for two to three year olds.
Valley of Gold is a story and a history; I suppose all history is really
stories. This is the story of the gold in a valley which is a bit like the one
I live in here, from four and a half billion years ago when the gold was spun
out of a star into the darkness, to the bushfires the Christmas before
last.
I'd like to say it's gripping, fascinating and wonderful, but to be
honest I have no idea if it is or not. When you write a book you are too close
to judge- you have to wait for other people to tell you.
But the illustrations are magic. They're by Margaret Power, and all her
work is wonderful.
I've just seen the illustrations by Stephen Michael King for My Mum the
Pirate and My Dog the Dinosaur too, the first two in the Whacky Family series
that are being released in July. They are totally absolutely HILARIOUS. I keep
giggling every time I see them on the kitchen table.
ps Mitch Vane's illustrations in Big Burps are incredible
too- wonderfully fantastically revolting!
Each one is just more giggle making than the last!
Travel and Workshops
Only one journey this month, to Bathurst and Orange. I'm still not
exactly sure what I'll be doing there, but am sure I'll find out in
time!
An old story
I found this story floating on my hard drive; it's been more than ten
years years since I wrote it. I had a private giggle over it, and decided to
resurrect it, read Shaming the Family
This month's recipes and gardening info galore on cabbages and their relatives