10.pm Bryan and I go to sleep.
10.10. Something screams out the window. Wake up again. No,
it's not someone being murdered. It's the 'screaming woman bird' or barking
owl. The dopey bird is only supposed to scream in autumn, but it's decided to
do it now.
10.12. Go back to sleep again.
10.20. A bulldozer starts work under our bed. on second thoughts it's not
abulldozer, it's a wombat
enlarging the hole under our bedroom floor. I'm
not sure if the wombat is Mothball or not- the wombats don't come out till late
now in the heat of summer. But this is a very, very energetic wombat.
10.25Go back to sleep again.
10.30. Someone sneezes under the floor. Wake up again. I
never knew that wombats got hay fevertill i moved here, and met the wombat we called Sneezy wombat-
well, naturally. Sneezy
had a hole that went deep under the creek flat. You'd hear her sneezing under
your feet- a deep echoey sort of sneeze. It used to worry visitors a bit till
we told them it was just awombat-
i think they thought the place might be haunted by a ghost with allergies. Sneezy
finally moved into the hole behind our bathroom. We'd hear her sneezing there
whenever we had a shower. She only sneezed in spring, so maybe she was allergic
to grass pollen, which must have been a terrible problem for a wombat, as
they're always nose to grass, so to speak.
11.10 Go back to sleep.
Midnight. Earthquake. Wake up. Realise it's not an earthquake, it's a wombat
scratching her back on the floor joists just under our bed.
12.30 am. Go back to sleep.
5.am Woken by shrike thrush pecking his reflection in the bedroom
window......
Other news Diary
of a Wombat is out! It's is a really wonderful book (I don't deserve the credit
for it, as the story is Mothball's, not mine, and the illustrations are Bruce
Whatley's!). It's in hard cover now, and looks wonderful in the bookshops. the
paperback will come out next year. And
Phredde and the Leopardskin Librarain is out too of course, and Ride the Wild
Windif you haven't seen that, and
The White Ship. I've
just finished writing Valley of Gold too, which will be out early next year.
iIts' about, well, a valley of gold, and the people and animals that have lived
in it and changed it, and how the valley has changed them too. And the next
book to get my teeth into will be Phredde and the Purple Pyramid! Well,
it's my birthday this month, and we're launching Diary of a Wombat at the
Kitchen Garden Festival at Vaucluse house in Sydneyon Sunday November 24- everyone's invited! I'll be speaking
at the festival both days, too. And we are giving workshopsat our 'open garden' through the Open
garden Scheme this month too- the money will go to the local hospital's Special
Care Room appeal- it's a room where families can stay with the people who are
ill. And
apart from that I'll just be writing, and gazing at the sky, and hoping for
rain......
A few recipes... Chocolate kisses
125g butter
half cup castor sugar
1 egg
third cup plain flour
quater cup self raising flour
two thirds cup cornflour
quater cup custard powder Beat
butter and sugar; add egg; mix well then mix in flours. Bake tiny spoonsful at
200C till very very pale brown. Cool, then sandwich together with:
1 tb butter
three quarters of acup icing
sugar
1 tb cocoa
enough milk to moisten- about 1 tb. be careful not to add too much! Keep
in a sealed container. you can ice the biscuits instead of sandwich them if
you'd rather- or do both!
Halloween Eyeballs Okay,
these are revolting-to look at anyway, but sometimes revolting is fun!
pickled onions
stuffed olives
dark rye/pumpernickel bread
cream cheese Hollow
out the onions. Fill centres with cream cheese. Place
olives in their sides. Cut out a hole in the middle and fill with rye bread-
this will be the pupil of the eye. Squish
the olive down into the cream cheese in the pickled onion. Serve
at Halloween parties, or if you want to make sure Aunt Beatrice never visits
you again. For greater effect, splash the plate
with tomato sauce or raspberry puree.
Ps
they actually taste quite good.Just make sure you shut your eyes before you crunch.
Base
300 gm butter
200gm castor sugar
150gm choc bits
225 g m plain flour
110 gm ground rice, rice flour or semolina
Place
the unopened tin of condensed milk in a saucepan; fill with water; put the lid
on and simmer for 2 hours- it should be bubbling but not boiling furiously.
Leave to cool down before you open it.
Base: cream butter and sugar; mix in other ingredients. Tip in onto a greased
and floured baking tray and use your fingers to press it lightly down and
spread it over the tray. bake
40 minutes or till pale gold around the edges. don't overcook or it will be
tough. Remove
from the oven. cool for about 30 minutes. Open
the condensed milk. it will now be thick caramel. Spread it over the base. melt
the chocolate, and spread that over the caramel. Once it's set a little, but
before it's totally hard cut into small squares. When
it's quite coldremove the squares
froim the tin. eat any broken bits. Keep the rest in asealed container for up to a
fortnight,though you'll have tio hide the tin for it to last that long.
