September 2006
Intro
New Books
Awards
Schedule for the next Few Months
September in the Garden
. what to plant
. garden delights for your pets
Fun Things for Kids...includes Spiders in Snot Bath gel, home made crayons and play dough.
A Few recipes
. Humble Pie for Breakfast
. Baked Fruit with Whisky oats
. Cherry Scones
. Bee stings
. Pumpkin Risotto
. Avocado Sauce for fish, prawns and baked potatoes
Intro and Wombat News
It's been a strange sort of a month. Started with a trip to Adelaide for Books Alive, which was fun, except for the usual culture shock after a month of seeing no one except a few friends and the wombats to suddenly be in the middle of city/ audiences/ traffic. But it was all so impeccably organised- always forget how much I like Adelaide.
Then Sydney for book week. Thought that would be a doddle but ended up locked alone in a bare hotel foyer late at night for three quarters of an hour (I'm sorry madam, said the girl at the after hours number, but the automatic unlocking mechanism doesn't seem to be working. No madam, I'm afraid there's nothing I can do about it till the manager arrives at 8 am tomorrow.)
Finished the month with Melbourne Writer's Festival, which was wonderful except for the 2 seconds in which I tore a tendon in my hand (the right one, naturally) while brushing my teeth on night one. (No doctor, it wasn't a wild night last night. No, I didn't have lots to drink. Well, only water. Am quite sure he didn't believe me... heck, I wouldn't have believed me.
Got home to find the valley doing what it does best, which is preparing to be fruitful this summer. Plum trees blossoming, closely followed by the peaches and apricots, apples just about to burst into bud, indigophera bushes like flames up on the hillside and great spills or clematis and wonga vine across the gum trees. No sign of asparagus yet but the first strawberries are swelling, and so are the loquats, new sweet red chicory leaves, fat avocadoes, and the bower birds given up on the last of the navel oranges and calamondins...which is a bit worrying as whoever killed great hordes of them the year before last may have struck again.
Haven't seen a wombat for weeks now. Too much grass, and with the warmth this month there's enough food value in the grass too so they don't need to graze in the afternoons. All the droppings are fat and green and squishy.
It would be lovely to think that this is the end of the drought. But it isn't. Just a respite, I think. But a good one....
New Books
The Goat That Sailed the World is sailing along a lot more calmly than the Endeavour ever did. Lost count of interviews now. I hope it does well. I grew very attached to that goat, and her protector young Isaac Manley.
October 1 will bring the glorious Josephine, in Josephine Wants to dance, which is a treat for anyone who adored Bruce's wombat pics in Dairy of a Wombat. His version of a dancing kangaroo is utterly glorious, with that self possessed self confidence that sub adolescent girls (and I suppose kangaroos) are so perfect at...
Meanwhile I'm at that stage of writing the Goat's sequel which involves much filing of nails and peeling of oranges and sorting through last year's seed collection, all good time wasters till the book finally takes enough shape to start going whoosh.
I hope.
Awards
'They Came in Viking Ships' has just been short listed for the NSW Premier's History award. It's the story of Hekja Scottish slave, or thrall, and her dog Snarf, who are captured by Freydis Eriksdaughter and her Viking crew and taken to Greenland and then Vinland. It's based on the true stories in the Icelandic Sagas, and is about to be released in the USA, Canada and UK under the title 'Rover'. It's been picked up elsewhere too, in translation, but not sure under which name.
Hitler's Daughter and Too Many Pears were short listed last month for the kid's choice Yabba and Koala awards...and enormous thank yous to everyone who has voted for them! It means an incredible amount!
Pete the Sheep has also been listed as one of the 50 Books Alive books too. Books Alive is an initiative of the Federal government and the Australia Council. Every time you buy one of the 50 books you get a free book too.
Schedule for the Next Few Months
Wednesday 25 October: Children's Week Awards, Canberra (as ACT Children's Ambassador)
Saturday 4 November: Talk at the Open Garden Seminar at Major's Creek, NSW - Details from the Open Garden Scheme.
Thursday to Saturday, 9-11 November: Ourimbah Children's Literature Festival at the Ourimbah Campus of the University of Newcastle. Which will be fantastic, if anyone can get to it - but as one of the patrons I'm biased. Come to think of it, no I'm not - it really is an excellent programme. There are sessions for kids on Friday. On Saturday I'm speaking on 'You Are What You eat' and Writing and Inspiration'.
Sunday, 12 November: Launch of 'Josephine Wants to Dance' and performance at the Bungendore School Fair, plus a talk at the Wildcare Stall there.
Saturday 25 November: Open Garden Workshops at our place. The Fruitful Garden...how to grow 270 sorts of fruit in drought, heat and frost as well as providing a haven for wildlife. Limited places, bookings necessary. Contact the Open Garden Scheme for details. (Please don't contact us. We can't take the bookings- they have to go through the Open Garden Scheme).
January Saturday 27 2007: Talks at the Jindabyne Visitors centre as part of their tenth anniversary celebrations.
Monday 14 and Tuesday 15 May 2007: Allwrite Festival, Adelaide.
The Garden in September
A Garden to Fulfil Your Pets' Fantasies
A garden looks different to a dog or cat. How many of us have ever considered a garden from the point of view (30 cms high) of a miniature Fox Terrier? To your pet tall bushes loom larger, colours are more monochrome; and smells are a far more important source of information too, as well as being more intense.
To design a garden to keep your pets happy you have to understand who they really are. No, that isn't a King Charles Spaniel snoozing on the sofa, it's a wolf surveying his territory. And Fluffy over there, doing her fuzzy slipper imitation, is really Bast, ancient Egyptian Goddess, waiting for her devoted followers to open the can of Tuna Yum.
So what do pets really need to keep them happy in a garden?
A Place from which to Survey the World
The first necessity in any territory designed for your pets, sorry, domestic wolf and fur ball Goddess, is a place to survey the world. I'm serious. When you're only 30 cms tall you really need to get up high to check that there are no invading burglars or currawongs after your dog or cat biscuits.
Cats love the flat roofs of garden sheds, and while it might be going too far to put up a shed just for your cat (though I'm sure Fluffy would take it as her due), there are alternatives: flat topped stone walls, benches, garden tables for the cats and chairs for the dogs, so they can practise being human for when the sausages are handed out at the next barbecue.
All joking aside, your cat and dog will feel much happier if they can see the whole of their territory, because it IS their territory (it's just your real estate) and they need to know who is doing what in it, especially if it involves a can opening or the Schnauzer next door.
Cats like nice wide window sills to doze on, especially if there is a bush next to the wall they can lurk behind. Rather than renovate the house just for your cat you could put in an above ground garden, at least waist high, edged with bricks or stone or sleepers - a good place for any cat.
Shrubbery and good smells
What next? Bushes. These make a garden interesting. You can lurk under a bush to ambush intruders, mark the leafy ground underneath with your scent, use it as a dunny or just have a scratch around and see what's new since last time.
Don't forget interesting smells, too. Make your garden sniff able. Grow hedges of lavender for your cat to sleep under or cat thyme (Teucrium marum) for an irresistible aroma.
Cat thyme can be irresistible to cats - they'll roll in it or just sit there, drinking in the smell. A word of warning though - cat thyme is only really fragrant in hot weather when the volatile oil evaporates, and some cultivars are much more potent than others. Of the seven bushes we've grown here, only two were attractive to cats - they just ignored the others.
Paving
Paving helps wear dog's claws down. It also gives pets a warm place to sleep on cold but sunny winter days, or a cool damp spot next to large pots in summer. I suspect there's some ancestral memory there as well - in the wild cats and dogs both like rocky ledges or warm stone outcrops high above the world.
Grass
This should be short, because it feels nice when you are dog or cat sized, and because dogs prefer the feel of urinating on short grass, though they can be trained to urinate in the gutter when you take them for a walk.
Things to avoid
Long grass with grass seeds, cane toads, and make sure your pet can't get to empty (or full) containers of snail bait, pesticides, fungicides and herbicides. Keep dogs away from recently sprayed areas too for at least 24 hours, including lawn that has been treated for bindiis. Keep unplanted bulbs away from dogs as well - they may chew them and they're toxic.
If your dog is a chewer, give them toys to chomp so they're not tempted by poisonous plants like oleander, poinsettia, azaleas, wisteria, tomato plants and many others. The sticks you throw for your dog shouldn't be from poisonous trees either! Nor should they be brittle, as many dogs wind up at the vet's with nasty mouth injuries caused by sticks that snap and splinter.
How Gardens can Help Correct Pet Problems
Give a little thought to your pets when you design your garden (and its furnishings), and you may find that most of the problems with cats and dogs in the garden disappear.
The dos and don'ts of doo doo
Most pets are creatures of habit. Train your pet to use a certain area by creating a nice fresh dirt spot for your cat, or plant bushes with soft leafy soil below. If the only patch of easily scratched earth in a sea of bowling green turf is your newly dug garden bed, then that's the place that the cat will use.
Cats will assume you have seen their need and with great labour, care and understanding created that spot just for them. Being cats, though, they're unlikely to think of thanking you.
Cover vegie gardens or sandpits with bird netting - available at all garden centres. You can just drape it over the garden, or stretch it tight between two pieces of wood to cover sandpits. The cats will get tangled if they try to scratch - and go elsewhere. Bird netting lasts for years - and is easily rolled up till you need it again
Most dogs like to mark where they or another dog have been, so if you can stop them in the first place you're nipping the problem in the bud. If a dog does use your place as a loo pick up the dropping at once or water the spot to eradicate the smell. Soaker hoses along the front garden, where passing dogs may be tempted, are good for this - especially if you turn the hose on while their leg is lifted.
Take your dog for a walk at the same time each day, if you can. Dogs don't like to foul their own living space and will keep their legs crossed if they know they're going out soon. (Take a pooper scooper and a plastic bag with you, so you don't decorate the neighbourhood as you go.)
Getting Rid of Droppings
Dig a very deep hole, insert each day's droppings, then scoop in at least 30 cms of soil to keep off flies. When it is nearly full add more dirt and plant a tree or shrub or rose bush. Whenever you enjoy its bounty think of your pet.
Wandering Cats
You CAN keep cats in - or out - if you are prepared to go to enough trouble. A LOOSE stretch of wire netting, at least 100 cms wide, on top of your fence will stop cats - structures that aren't rigid make them nervous. So will two or three taut wires angled inwards over your fence - a bit like fences around car yards. If you want to modify an existing fence buy tall 'star pickets' and get the store to bend the tops of them slightly, so you can thread the wires through the bent bits.
If cats stalk along branches, make a 'collar' of Colorbond, rigid plastic or wire that they can't get over.
Never let your cat outdoors at night, when birds and lizards are asleep and vulnerable. Avid cat lovers and wild bird fanciers can turn their whole backyard into a cage, with netting above head height to keep the cats from the birds.
Digging
Bored dogs will often dig. Leave your pooch with a plentiful supply of balls, toys and puzzles - and make your garden as complex and interesting as you can, or you may find that they have invented their own amusements. (You however may not be amused.)
Two dogs may dig less than one lonely one, or you may just double your problem! Dogs that are 'companions' - often with their humans - rarely dig as much. If your dog HAS dug up your vegie garden don't yell when you come home - the poor pooch will associate your anger with your coming home, not the dug up bed. Buy bird netting - see above - and drape it over favourite areas till they forget about digging them up.
Rolling in smelly stuff
Golden labradors especially love smelly stuff, as do most dogs bred for hunting. It makes sense - a stinky dog is less noticeable to its prey. Unfortunately it's much more noticeable to you.
Mix manures like Dynamic Lifter with water rather than put them on dry. Or only put fertiliser down when you can put a sprinkler on afterwards. (This is better for the plants too!)
Now is the time to:
. mulch mulch mulch mulch...mulch pots and hanging baskets too.
. Sow flower seeds! It's tempting to just pick up a punnet or two for summer colour, but planting seeds may give you hundreds of plants for the same price as a dozen seedlings. Most seedlings germinate in a week or ten days, and are ready to plant out a week or two later, so a punnet is really only saving you a little time.
. Feed and water bulbs as the flowers fade, to build up good bulbs for next year's blooms
. Mow! Set the mower on a high setting to begin with, so only the tips are shorn, then gradually lower the mower height over the next few months, though never so low you cut bald patches. Taking too much off the grass in early spring will weaken the grass, so it's less hardy in summer's heat and drought.
. Feed lawns now too.
. Plant hanging baskets or pots for summer colour.
. Cut out dead leaves or flowers before summer growth smothers them.
What to plant:
Kitchen garden:
Cold: strawberry plants, rhubarb crowns, olive, bay or strawberry guava trees, a lemon verbena bush, Chinese cabbage, wok bok, silver beet, parsnips, potatoes, peas, snap peas, spinach, turnips, broad beans.
Temperate to hot: citrus, bananas, avocado, macadamia and other evergreen fruit trees, passionfruit, asparagus (seed), basil, beans, beetroot, carrots, capsicum, chilli, Chinese cabbage, choko, cucumber, corn, eggplant, corn, pumpkin, lettuce, silver beet, spring onions, okra, parsnips, rosella, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, zucchini and melons.
Flower garden: flowering shrubs, scented geraniums, cacti and other succulents, alyssum, ageratum, amaranthus, aster, balsam, calendulas, Californian poppy, cornflowers, carnations, daisies and everlasting daisies, dahlia seeds (well drained soils only) impatiens, dianthus, geraniums, gerberas, marigolds, nasturtiums, petunias, portulaca, rudbeckia, salvia, snapdragons, sunflowers and zinnias
Cool areas only: sweet peas.
Hot areas only: heliconias, celosia, coleus.
Avoiding Spring Allergies!
Question: Help! My garden makes me sneeze, drip and snuffle every spring! My husband says we should move to a high-rise flat!
Answer: Sorry... you may well snuffle as much in a high rise flat, as most of the pollens that make you snuffle are carried to you by the wind, so it'll zap you on your high up balcony too! But while plants and mildews are flowering in spring:
. wear a proper mask and eye protection when cutting lawns, handling potting mix or mulch - or get him to do it;
. use a dryer for sheets, pillowslips and clothes while pine trees, cypresses, grasses and spring weeds are flowering, or you'll be sleeping in a bed full of pollen;
. don't plant a wattle near the clothes line! Wattle pollen is too heavy to travel far, but a line of wet clothes can trap a surprising amount of it;
. mow often so grasses near you don't flower;
. plant great big gorgeous flowers! Most pollen comes from inconspicuous flowers that rely on wind for pollination, so they don't have to be big and bright to attract birds and bees.
Fun Things for kids
Finger paint
1 cup cornflour dissolved in two tablespoons cold water
1 litre boiling water
1 cup soap flakes
a few drops of food colouring
Mix the cornflour in the boiling water till smooth. Stir in the soap flakes. Add the colouring drop by drop till the mixture is cool. Keep in a sealed container. If you want to keep the paint for longer than a week a few drops of Dettol, eucalyptus or tea tree oil will help it keep a bit longer without developing interesting smells and flora.
Play dough
2 cups plain white flour
1 cup salt
4 tbs cream of tartar
2 cups water
2 tb vegetable oil
a few drops food colouring (optional)
Stir all ingredients except colouring over a low heat till mixed. Cool. Divide and colour each piece with a few drops of a different colour. Knead on a floured surface till smooth. Keep in an airtight container, preferably the fridge. Throw out if an odour or discolouring develops. See note above about longer keeping.
Natural Crayons - home made
500 gms beeswax (use beeswax candles from a craft shop)
250 gms yellow soap, grated
colouring ochre - buy from a hardware store
Melt the beeswax - add the soap and stir over a low heat till mixed. Take off the heat and stir in the ochre. Pour into moulds. Leave till set. Remove GENTLY - they'll be brittle and leave for at least a month for them to harden. (They'll get harder and harder for about two years.)
Moulds
I make ours out of an old ice-cream container, with the sections marked out by sections of other containers.
Home Made Glue
Ingredients:
1 cup flour
1 cup boiling water
Add flour to water. Take oft heat. Stir till smooth. Keep in sealed container.
Pet Rocks
Send the kids out to find interesting shaped rocks. Use acrylic paint to add mouths, ears, long red tongues and so on. Add wool fur for dogs or cats, stripes for zebras, bark spikes - go wild! Collect a whole school or farm or jungle of them for a row on a kid's shelf.
Cubbies
The best cubbies are ones designed and executed by kids. Pre-fab cubbies look sweet - but how many do you know that are used regularly?
Give kids a hedge to make a nest under; a bit of fence down the back behind the shed to roof over with branches; a few planks and some corrugated iron when they're ten or twelve and they'll make themselves a cubby that they'll use - and that will evolve as they grow older.
Eggheads
Ingredients:
1 egg cup
1 cooked egg (soft or hard boiled)
soil or potting mix
water cress seeds
1 texta pen or crayon.
Put the egg in an egg cup. Take the top off your egg, as neatly as you can.
Eat the egg. Draw a face on the egg. Fill the egg with potting mix or soil. Scatter a few watercress seeds on top.
Scatter just a little soil on top of the seeds so they don't dry out as they germinate. Water it gently so the seeds and soil don't wash out. Put the egg cup and egg on the windowsill or in the sun somewhere. Water it every day. When the water cress shoots give it a haircut. You can eat what you've cut off - and your egg will have a punk green haircut.
Keep watering the egg every day. Every time you cut the egg's hair it'll grow again. Just keep cutting - and watering - and it'll keep growing.
Spiders in Snot (a bath gel for interesting baths)
This is for small boys who love anything disgusting- and this recipe might just make them eager to get into the bath!
Ingredients
5 plastic spiders (do not let them use real ones)
1 tb gelatine
6 tb baby or other shampoo
half a cup boiling water
Mix everything but the spiders. Pour into a jar. Leave for half an hour, then poke in spiders.
Fairies in Jelly Bath gel
For sweet children who don't like spiders in snot.
Ingredients
1 tb gelatine
6 tb baby shampoo or other shampoo
4 drops scented oil
1 drop edible food colouring- esp pink or green
1 small plastic fairy (or butterfly)
Proceed as above.
Volcanic Bath gel
Ingredients
1 tall thin plastic jar NB do not use a glass jar- it may break in the bath)
glue
white paper
colouring pencils or textas
3 tb bicarbonate of soda
half a cup vinegar
2 drops red food colouring
3 tb baby or other shampoo
Note: this recipe is sufficient for only one bath
Glue the paper onto the bottle. Leave to dry.
Use pencils or textas to turn the bottle into a volcano...colour it green at the base, then brown, with a savage looking black rim and maybe a red final rim at the top.
Pour bicarbonate of soda and shampoo and food colouring carefully into jar. Mix well. Put the lid on till needed.
When you want to use the bath gel, hold the bottle over the full bath. Take the lid off, pour in the vinegar...and the bright red magma will erupt all over the bath.
A Few (Food Type) Recipes
I've been reading Elizabethan recipes the past few weeks, and have come up with:
Umble (or Humble) Pie for Breakfast
('Umbles' or 'humbles' were deer innards)
Parboil deer innards. Chop with mutton suet, thyme, marjoram, borage, parsley, rosemary, pepper, cloves and mace. Enclose in pastry and bake.
A More Luxurious Modern Breakfast: Baked Fruit with Whisky oats
Place in an oven proof casserole dish:
rind of 1 lemon
1 cinnamon stick
4 cardamom pods
2 cups orange or apple juice (or 1 cup juice and 1 cup port)
6 pears, peeled, cored and quartered OR
a mix of any of the following: pears, apples, quinces, fresh or dried figs, nashi pear, dried apricots or dried peaches
(You can also add 1 cup sugar but doesn't really need it)
Bake for 1 1/2 -2 hours at 200C
Just at the end of cooking mix up the Whisky Oats.
Whisky oats
2 cups rolled oats (raw)
1 tb extra virgin olive oil
2 tb honey
2 tb whisky (can be omitted)
Mix well.
Place on an oven tray. bake for 10-15 minutes till pale gold and crisp. Don't let the oats turn too brown- check often.
Serve fruit hot or cold. Scatter on the hot or cold oats just as you are about to eat.
Fruit can be kept covered in the fridge for up to five days.
Oats should keep crisp in a sealed container for about five days too if you let them cool before storing. But they are best fresh.
Cherry Scones
1 tin cherries, or 1 cup stewed cherries, with stones removed
2 cups selfraising flour
2 dessertspoons butter or margarine
half cup cherry juice
half cup cream or buttermilk OR
1 full cup cherry juice
Turn the oven onto hot (275C) NOW.
Rub the butter into the flour; add other ingredients and roll the dough out on a board sprinkled with flour till it's smooth. Cut into rounds with an upturned glass, or cookie cutter if you have one (A heart shaped one is you want to go all romantic). Place scones in a greased pan, just touching. Brush them with a little milk- if you don't have a pastry brush the tips of your fingers will do.
Now place the pan on a baking tray, so the bottoms don't get too hard before the tops are brown; bake 15 minutes.
Take them out of the oven, and cover AT ONCE with a clean tea towel. Leave for ten minutes. this will give them that lovely soft scone like texture.
Eat hot with butter or jam and cream, or toast them for breakfast or reheat in the microwave(Though they won't be as good re heated)
Bee Stings
200gm butter/marg
1 tb finely grated orange rind
half cup yoghurt
1 cup brown sugar
3 eggs
2 cups SR flour
half cup or a little more orange juice
Syrup
half cup honey
1 tsp finely grated orange rind
1 cup water
Cream butter, rind and sugar; add eggs one by one; add flour juice and yoghurt. mix gently. Place in greased tray; bake 30 mins or till golden brown at 200C. remove from oven. pour hot syrup on at once. slice into squares. store in a sealed container, away from bees.
If you want to be really luxurious, cut slices in half and spoon on honey sauce as well.
Syrup: boil for 3 minutes
Avocado Sauce
1 small or half a large avocado, mashed
two thirds of a cup virgin olive oil
1 third of a cup white wine vinegar or lime juice (lime juice is best)
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon French mustard
half teaspoon salt
half teaspoon brown sugar
good grind black pepper
optional: 2 tb finely chopped parsley or coriander
Throw it all in a glass jar. Put the lid on. Shake well. Keep in the fridge for up to a week.
Pour over shelled prawns, yabbies or cooked salmon. Makes a great hot potato salad- boil new spuds; stir in a little sauce. Serve at once. Not bad on pasta either, with a few prawns, yabbies or semi dried tomatoes.
Pumpkin Risotto
half cup basmati rice
3 teaspoons turmeric, fresh or ground
1 Spanish /red onion, very finely chopped
1 cup pumpkin, peeled and cubed (tiny cubes)
5 tb ghee or margarine
juice half a lemon
2 cups chicken stock or water
salt if necessary; black pepper
Melt ghee/margarine in pan on VERY low heat; add onion, pumpkin squares and rice; stir till onion is soft (Add more ghee/margarine if necessary); add turmeric; stir for another three minutes; add other ingredients; simmer till rice is soft; add more stock/water only if necessary. Add salt (if desperately needed only) and pepper when you take off the heat.
This is excellent.