Jackie's May message continued . . .
What
a month! Absolutely no doors broken down by furious wombats; no doormats chewed
by enraged marsupials, no garbage bins bashed by a hungry Mothball...it's been
raining every second day for the past two months, and the garden looks like a
giant has tromped through scattering flowers, and there is so much grass the
wombats are so fat they are almost rolling down the hills.
Actually Mothball
did have a chew at the front doormat last week, but I think it was just for
dessert after all that grass, as she only gnawed off one corner of it.
And the lyrebirds
are back where they belong, scratching up the bush and not my vegie garden.
They've started singing now the cold days have come, but none of this lot are
really musicians. They just do bird imitations. We had an incredible lyrebird
musician here many years ago; wove bush sounds and bird calls into the most
extraordinary melody. But he was eaten by a fox, and there has been no more
music like that. The lyrebird calls are fun these days, as 10 birds seem to yell
from one branch. But it's not the same. .
There is so much
grass that even the wallabies have stopped munching the roses, and all the
autumn leaves are turning colour too, all golds and red sand oranges. I just
lie and stare out the window for half an hour when I wake up now. It is all so
stunningly beautiful, and it's almost impossible to remember how bare and dry
and desperate it was two months ago.
We even had a
flood the night before last- not a big one, just a bit of a roar down the
valley and a few boulders bouncing on the froth. There were a few small
landslides on the mountain road too, which made getting home hairy on sunday
night, epscially as there was a giant boulder half as big as the car in the
middle of the road.
We managed to move
the smaller rocks and edge our way around it, but it was a bit worrying as we
could see more boulders ready to come down.
I suppose the
really big news here this month though is our new entance road. Ever since the
big flood in 1978, when the creek decided to flow where our road used to be,
there's been a very narrow strip of road around our cliff. I do mean VERY
narrow. It was perfectly passable, as we used to assure everyone, but there was
a cliff on one side and a sheer drop to the creek on the other and you
couldn't see the road in front of you at one point, just had to trust that the
road really was there.
We always told
everyone firmly that there was really millimetres to spare and they'd get
round the bend with no trouble at all. But we've been stunned by the number of
friends and family who've breathed a sigh of relief and said, oh, we'll come
and visit you now....
Because our road
is now MUCH wider. Many blasts of dynamite later- which was great fun, like an
enormous cracker night- and several loads of gravel and a bit of rock and earth
moving, and our road is now better than the public road leading to our gate-
which isn't saying much, as the public road is referred to locally as 'the goat
track'.
But it makes
getting into our place extremely simple now, as long as there isn't a flood, or
a landslide beyond our gate, or a giant water dragon goes to sleep on the road
and refuses to move.
And the new road
even looks beautiful, as there is now a view right up the creek as you drive
in, and the blasting was really very neat- now the grass and ferns are up again
it all looks like it's been there for 100 years.
Wombat Joke
A travel agent put
a sign in his window: 'Receptionist wanted. Must be able to type, send emails,
and speak five languages.'
As soon as the
sign appeared the door opened. It was a wombat.
The wombat nodded
at the advertisement. The man shook his head.
'I'm afraid we
can't give you the job. You have to be able to type.
The wombat climbed
up onto the chair next to the desk and typed away.
The man shook his
head again.'You have to be able to send emails.'
The wombat
promptly sent an email to 'kangaroo@gumtree.com.au'.
The man shook his
head again.'You have to be able to speak five languages!'
And the wombat
said 'Woof, miaow, moo, baa, oink.'
Books
Absolutely no
books whatsoever came out this monthŠhave had great fun though promoting Big
Burps Bare Bums and other Bad Mannered Blunders- keep giggling every time I read
bits of it out. it's a book about good manners, bad manners and really TERRIBLE
manners, and is it ever a good time to give someone a wedgie? Some lovely
reviews of Valley of Gold have come out too.
And for everyone
asking about Phredde and the Purple Pyramid, no, you'll have to wait till
October! It's written, and being illustrated, but there are stilll useful bits
like correcting the spelling and doing the cover to do yet.
All the Phredde
books are having new covers, and will look hilarious- Mitch Vane is an inspired
illustrator! I adore what she's done with bruce...a phaery prince who'd rather
be a frog isn't exactly an easy thing to illustrate. The first new batch will
be out in October too.
Hitler's Daughter,
Somewhere Around the Corner, Daughter of the Regiment and Soldier on the Hill
have new covers too- really striking ones. The first copies arrived in the mail
yesterday, and I started reading Soldier on the Hill at breakfast, which was a
mistake, as I was still reading it an hour later. It's been so long since I
read it that it's like reading someone else's book.
Travel
It's Albury
Wodonga this month- a talk at a dinner on Monday the 12th- not sure where yet
but it's open to the public, then talks at the Albury Library on Tuesday 13th
and Wodonga library on Wednesday the 14th.
I'll be at the
Sydney Writer's Festival this month too, with sessions on the tuesday and
wednesday, and Wednsday eveing, and another at 9 am on Saturday 23rd. I'll also
be giving the keynote address at the annual conference of Catholic Schools at
Homebush on the friday before, and a couple of other talks too while I'm in
sydney. I spend most of my time at home, so usually cram as much as possible in
while I'm away...proably a mistake, as I'm always bushed when I get home. But
I reckon I'd be bushed anyway, so what the heck. *
* my Dad fined me two week's pocket money many years ago for saying 'heck'.
because it wasn't lady like. But I think that particular battle was doomed.
Awards
It's been a great month for shortlistings!
Both Hitler's
Daughter and Diary of a Wombat have been shortlisted in the 2003 Children's Choice
Awards. That's on top of Wombat's shortlisting for the Children's Book Council
award for Best Picture Book.
Diary of a
Wombat has also
been shortlisted in the Australian Publisher's Association Book Design Awards
for Best-Designed Children's Picture Book, and also for a Galley Club Award!
And the NSW
Premier's Awards will be announced later this month, and Ride the Wild Wind has been shortlisted for the
Patricia Wrightson Award too.
Which leaves me a bit
breathlesss... The UK rights to Diary of a wombat are being auctioned this month,
and the US have doubled their Wombat print run for Christmas, and a host of
other overseas countries are taking a horde of the other books. So it looks
like Mothball wombat will have fresh doormats for a good while yet.
In the garden
What to plant in May:
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 brocolli
seedlings
ps. According to recent research, it's not just lack of sunlight that makes
people feel gloomy in winter. They may also be missing the good fragrances of
summer, like freshly mown grass and scented flowers, as well as because of the
lack of sunlight.in other words, brighten up winter with a few good pongs and
you'll feel better!
. plant two fruiting cumquats in tubs by your front door: the fruit does smell
wonderfully citrusy
. Plant primulas, polyanthus or pansies where you'll see them every day- just
outside the kitchen or living room window, maybe. Feed them with soluble plant
food every three weeks to keep them strong and blooming all winter. Starved
plants give few flowers!
. splurge on a few BIG indoor plants- or even half a dozen African violets for
your desk. (No, not just one mingy little plant- if it's worth doing, go
whole hog!)
. go camelia hunting in the nurseries, to see which blooms you fall in love
with. A camelia costs about the same as hiring three videos- but you'll get
years of pleasure instead of just a few hours. And yes, there are some camelias
with the most stunning scent.
. plant a daphne bush or some earlicheer jonquils for quite extraordinarily
strong perfume. Some people find them far too strong indoors, but they are
glorious when you geta gentle whiff from the garden
The Pick It and Leave It Garden Bed
Gardens
are like washing up. If you do it after very meal, it's child's play. If you
leave it till every saucepan has a crust tough enough to build an average ten
story apartment block out of, it's easier just to buy new saucepans.
If you crave a
vegie garden, but know you won't be able to water it, weed it, cosset it and
mulch it every week, consider hiring someone to do it. IF the garden is looked
after regularly , that lettuce will turn out to be reasonably cost
effective..and you'll also have the thrill of growing your own, even if you
didn't actually grow it., a bit like Lord Whosemewhatis's ancestral asparagus
bed...good crop this year, eh what Jeeves. If you direct the growing, of course
it's yours..
For those who
can't afford the garden version of a Jeeves for a couple of hours a week, try
the following. They are plants that bear and bear and bear.
All you have to do
(but you actually have to DO it) is mulch them with either lucerne hay or one
of those nice compressed mulches you an buy at the garden centre as soon as
you plant them, plus a sprinkle of Dynamic Lifter or other good organic
feeder...and apply more mulch and tucker when the last lot is getting thin.
These will all
survive without regular watering, but bunging on a few handfuls of something
good once a year or so will help their general happiness enormously.
Sorrel
Sorrel is a weed if it's growing in the cracks in your
paving. If it's growing in your garden it's called Frenmch sorrel, and the
leaves will be bigger and not as bitter. you can make a sorrel soup (see
below), which isn't bad at all..and even better, it's one of those last minmute
jobs so you can actually dash down to the garden when your visitors arrive, and
return brandishing actual real home grown produce, which can be very
satisfying.
Leaf amaranth
This is a close
relative of the flower, and the flowers on this are pretty too. It's an annual
you need to plant it every year- except you don't, as it reseeds itself with
sometimes alarming generosity ie if there's a bare patch of soil under the gum
tree it won't be bare next year, it'll have 10,00 little amaranth seedlings in
it.
Pick the young leaves;
bung them in the salad ostentaciously. They're not actally GOOD, but they're
okay..and virtuously home grown
Garlic chives
These really are good...plant three punnets; the clumps
will get bigger and bigger every year and may even throw out a few seedlings.
I use garlic
chives chopped into everything, with the possible exception of sponge cakes and
icecream..... omelettes, stews, on top of soup or pizza...and they don't die
down in winter or disappear down snail's gullets as often as normal chives do
either.
Spring onions
Plant; pick, and watch them multiply. Use them very finely
chopped instead of onions.
Lovage
This is a herb, a sort of ancestral celery, but perennial,
and you use the leaves instead of the stems.
Dandelions
No, not the skinny leafed weeds- the improved large leafed
form, which with any luck your garden centre can sell you. Toss the leaves in
salads. If you pick them often, you'll need to throw them a handful of food
every month or so, and water at least once a week, to keep the leaves sweet and
tender
Salad burnet
This is a tiny bush with hardy leaves that taste a bit
like cucumber; chop them finely into a salad.
Chokoes
Okay, the choko is no longer a fashionable veg..but have
you ever had tiny steamed chokes, no bigger than your thumb? They are
exquisite.....
Buy a choko;
shove it down the back of the vegie cupboard till it sputs, then plant it in a
sunny spot with the sprouting bit out of the soil. Pick when they are tiny and
before the tough seed inside has formed. Just as a marrow is quiet different
from a baby zuchinni, a miniature choko is a delight.
Rhubarb
Plant it, mulch it, pick it...dead easy. I simmer our
rhubarb stalks in orange juice, with a bit of sugar till soft- takes about 5
minutes.
Jerusalem artichokes
The plants look like small flowered sunflowers, and that's
because they are- buy a few at the supermarket, plant them in spring, and
youi'll get masses. but don't plant them where you don't want them forever, as
the tiny tubers left in the soil will regrow next year. Bake the tubers on an
oiled tray till soft- about 30 minutes. They are very good.
Sorrel soup
Ingredients: 6 cups of chicken stock, 1 handful of sorrel, splash of cream
optional, 2 potatoes
Place 1 cup of
chicken stock- the boxed kind- in the blender. Add a handful of sorrel leaves.
(remove slugs first). Blend. Pour into a stainless steel pan with another five
cups of stock. (Not an aluminium pan- it makes sorrel taste metalic). Simmer
five minutes; remove from the heat and stir in a little cream, or not as you
prefer. serve hot or cold.
This is also good
thicken with a couple of spuds; in which case simmer everything except the
cream till the spuds are tender, puree, reheat, add cream, and eat.
ps If you don't have a garden at all, everything above can be grown in largish
pots...including the choko, as long as you give it somewhere to climb..and warn
the neighbours to beware of falling veg.
A Few recipes
Icecream Sandwich
Ingredients:
icecream (your choice)
Crunchy Honey Wafers
100 butter
three quarters of a cup caster sugar
quarter cup honey
half cup plain flour
2 egg whites
Mix all together-
no, you don't need to beat the whites first.
Spread baking
paper over four baking trays, then spread the mixture out on them. Use the back
of a spoon or a knife or spatula to spread as thinly as you can.
Bake at 180c till
pale brown- not dark brown. Cool on the trays till crisp.
Break into thirds.
Keep in a sealed container till needed.
To make the sandwich:
Slice icecream
thick or thinly in it's carton; prise out with a fork. Lay on one wafer and top
with another. It doesn't matter if the sizes don't match, as both bits taste
good without the other!
Ps you can also
use these for a really fancy sundae
Pps chopped
macadamias can also be added to the wafer mix.
Bunyip Balls
A cross between a lolly and a biscuitŠ
4 cups biscuit crumbs-milk arrowroot, Nice, or any reasonably plain ones; they
needn't all be fine crumbs- small lumps are good
quarter cup cocoa
half cup brown sugar
1 egg
half cup butter/ margerine
quarter cup sultanas
2 tb powdered ginger
1 cup coconut or choc sprinkles
Icing
2 tb cocoa
1 cup icing mixture
1 tb ginger
water
Melt butter in a
saucepan; add brown sugar, ginger, cocoa and sultanas, stir well for 2 minutes;
add egg, stir well for a minute, and take off the heat. Now mix in biscuit
crumbs.
Take spoons full
and roll into balls, then roll in the icing, then roll in coconut (for a wise
old Bunyip look) or choc sprinkles.
Refrigerate for 2
hours before serving, or leave overnight in a sealed container. Lasts for
weeks.
Icing
Mix cocoa, icing mixture and ginger; add a little water and mix, then add a few
drops more water till it's nicely oozing but not too damp. Beware of adding too
much water! It's very easy to do.
Truffle Eggs
2 cups cake or biscuit crumbs
2 tsp grated orange zest or ground almonds
2 tb cointreau or rum
quarter cup cream
100 gm dark chocolate, melted
250 gm white chocolate
Mix everything except oil and white chocolate. Take tablespoons full of the
mixture and roll into egg shapes.
Melt the white chocolate, take off the heat and stir for about 10 seconds to
make it glossy then roll the eggs in the chocolate; leave on a tray to set.
Store in a sealed container for up to 2 weeks.
ps you can reverse the chocolates- use 100gm white chocolate inside, and 250
dark chocolate outside.
Bubbble and Squeak
This got its name
from the bubble and squeaking noise as the veg was cooked- it was supposed to
sound like witches burining in hell fire. Which gives an intersting insight
into cooks of a hundred years ago..eat up your nice bubbling witches dear...
But bubble and
squeak is really a great dish, and you really can hear the bubbling and
squeaking.
3 tb olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 rashers bacon, chopped (Optional: I don't like bacon in my bubble and squeak)
2 cups raw cabbage, Chinese cabbage, bok choy
2 cups cooked spuds, boiled baked or mashed
Fry bacon, oil,
cabbage, and onion till onion is soft; add spuds and fry till brown.
Other cooked veg
can be added- peas, cauliflower, carrots, roast pumpkin....