Introduction | Wombat news | Book News | New Awards
Schedule for the Year ahead | The October Garden |
A Few Recipes

Spring came suddenly this year- or maybe I was just too preoccupied to notice. One morning it was winter- long Johns, fire lit in the kitchen, wood brought down from the shed. By afternoon it was summer and the flies were bumbling at the windows.
That was three weeks ago, and today the air is saying summer, though the trees are still yelling 'spring'. More blossom every time I turn around.
It’s a good day for growing things. The soil is warm, even if the early morning air freezes my fingers till I’m half way up the mountain, and I meet the line of sunlight coming down as the sun rises over the mountains.
Planting the first summer veg is the most exciting time: the air thick with rose petal and apple blossom, the annual ‘spring snow’; dreaming of fresh tomatoes and basil and apple cucumbers as I shove the seedlings into the soil, in spots where they’re sheltered by radish going to seed or under the pomegranate branches, where they won’t be hit by the late frosts we can get for another two months.
‘Shove’ is the right word, by the way. Other gardeners dig, and dig again, carefully remove weeds and rake the soil level and plant neat rows. I bung on a few bales of hay sometime in winter over weeds and any unwanted veg; and by spring when I part the mulch there’s bare ground underneath.
         If the ground is irretrievably weedy I plant spuds first- just dig holes between the weeds, wriggle in a seed potato, then bung on even more hay. And eventually the potatoes plants poke up their heads through the mulch, which feeds and weeds and keeps in the moisture for the new spuds forming under the ground.
         It seems like a time of regrowth in other ways here, too. It’s been a bad few months- so bad at times that I didn’t give a hint in the newsletters, as sometimes even expressions of sympathy are too much to cope with- each one needs explanations, which take time, which you often don’t have in a crisis. Much of the past few months have been spent at various hospitals with Bryan. He still faces more surgery, but for now things look good.
         It does mean though that I need to give enormous apologies to everyone I haven’t replied to in the past few months, or have been brief or perfunctory. I had to cancel going to the Brisbane Writer’s Festival at the last minute (they were total and wonderful darlings despite the mess I must have put them into) and must have seemed in a daze and a dither at the Melbourne Writer’s Festival- had only found out the day before I left that the surgery we’d thought was over was going to be begin again the day I got back.
         So- apologies to everyone, for all I haven’t been able to do, and for all that I will be able to do, but will be a few months late. Sometimes fate just flies down and swallows you for a while, and this has been one of those times.
Wombat News
         The wombat droppings are big and round and healthy looking- there’s good grass this spring. There are small dug patches by many of the droppings, too, which means that several neighbourhood wombats are making an emphatic statement. I’m not sure exactly what they’re saying- I only speak a little wombat. But they are saying it in the wombat equivalent of a yell- a large dropping and a scratch in the grass around it.
Latest Awards
         By the time you read this Diary of a Wombat will have won the 2008 Queensland Younger readers Bilby Award- one of the awards where kids vote for their favourite book. This year, too, Hitler’s daughter will be placed in the Koala ‘hall of fame’- it has been short listed for ‘best book’ every year since it was first published.  
It is impossible to say how much both these awards mean to me. Not just because kids have voted for them, though that's important too, but also because Hitler's Daughter isn't a funny book, or a short snappy book. It's a book that challenges you to look at the past, and the future too.
          Every book you read- including the short and funny ones-gives you a vision of another world. And when the kids of today create the future, I bet it's going to be a good one.
Latest Books
         Emily and the Big Bag Bunyip is out!
If you loved Diary of a Wombat, Josephine Wants to Dance or the Shaggy Gully Times you’ll adore Emily and the Big Bad Bunyip. Bruce has done something incredible with it- not only made the characters hilarious, but made the book beautiful too. It’s a book you’ll laugh at, then linger over. (I still can’t open it without marvelling again at each image on the page).
Mostly, I think, we wanted to create a book that made people happy. No matter how gloomy and Bunyip like you feel when you start to read Emily and the Big Bag Bunyip, you’ll be grinning at the end of it.
         There is a sub text to Emily and the Big Bag Bunyip, too, as there is with all of the picture books Bruce Whatley and I do together. With this one very young kids will laugh at the animals’ characters and the bunyip noises; older kids will get the jokes like the possum in a batman suit ‘just hanging around’. But adults may read it on a different level- how in the bush community of Shaggy gully there is enough kindness and compassion even to include a Bunyip- whether he likes it or not. Pretty much, come to think of it, as the community here has helped us so much in the past few months, long after the book was finished and had flown off to the printer.
Other new books:
The Camel who Crossed Australia- a camel’s view of the disastrous Burke and Wills expedition, as well as the story told from the point of view of cameleer Dost Mahomet and explorer John King. The burke and wills has been seen in many ways by many people, but not perhaps from these points of view.
How High can a Kangaroo Hop:  companion to the Secret World of Wombats. How high can a kangaroo hop? Most Australians think they know about kangaroos and wallabies- but do we really? This book tells all you never realised you didn’t know about roos and wallabies, as well as stories of some of the roos and wallabies I’ve lived with or met in the bush.
A Rose for the Anzac boys: perhaps my best book, or maybe just the one that moves me most. Three girls in World War 1 decide to open a canteen for the soldiers in France, and find courage and determination and love along the way.

Schedule for this year and part of next year
I’m afraid I won’t be able to manage much more than the list below. (It doesn’t include all the other things that have to be crammed into my life.)  I usually receive at least one invitation to give talks or workshops each day, sometimes several. 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 (at least 200, preferably 600 or more) because this means that I can speak to more people in the time I have available.
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.

October 22: Children’s Day Awards, Canberra
October 28, 29, 30: Talks at schools in the Southern Highlands (Contact Lateral Learning for details).
November 15 and 16: Open Garden workshops at our place – contact the Open Garden Scheme (they take all the bookings and do all the arranging). We’ve  added another workshop on the Saturday afternoon, as so many were  disappointed when the Sunday workshops filled up so fast.
March 23-27, 2009: All Saint’s Festival talks, Perth, including a gardening talk one evening. Contact All Saints for details.
April 1–3, 2009: Newington College Literary Festival, Sydney
May 5 – 6 2009: Talks in Brisbane. For more details contact Show and Tell, helen@showtell.com.au
September 2009 – Brisbane Writer’s Festival

The October Garden
         It’s one thing to say airily’ oh, we only do about a day’s work a year in the garden’. It’s another to have to leave the garden to it’s own devices for six months because neither of us are able to get out and do anything except pick some fruit and veg for dinner.
         The wallabies have been munching, the weeds have grown, the beds of flowers, herbs and vegies are dry… and nothing’s changed. The trees are still dripping rambling roses, the wisteria’s in bloom, the apple trees are setting what looks like a bumper crop. There are spuds and enough greens to feed us, oranges, avocadoes and at least another ten sorts of fruit to pick. The wombats wallabies and roos have even kept the grass down- though they’ve ignored the weeds, which are rearing their heads up till they get their yearly decapitation in a couple of weeks i.e. our annual ‘lawn’ mowing.
The only ‘repair’ work I’ve had to do is plant spuds then scatter three bales of hay over the most weedy bits of the vegetable areas- the ones called ‘tiger pens’ as they are our only area fenced to keep out parsley loving wallabies and carrot eating wombats.
 And now I have a spare hour or two I’m even tucking in our yearly annuals, capsicum, chillies, basil, some bush beans…most of our veg ‘self sow’- they go to seed and new ones spring up each year. And that’s what’s happened again this year, as the perennial beans, the choko, spring onions, parsley, freckles lettuce, chicory, Asian greens all spring up again. Ah, spring. Things spring.

What to Plant in October
 Hot climates
Food plants:  Choko, lemon grass, sweet potato and passionfruit vines, Jerusalem artichokes, paw paw and Cape gooseberry seeds. Also the seeds of artichokes, basil, beans, beetroot, capsicum, carrots, celery, celtuce, chicory, cucumbers, eggplant, endive, fennel, tropical lettuce, melons, okra, parsley, peas, peanuts, pumpkin (not in humid areas), radish, rosellas, sweet corn, tomatoes and salad greens like mizuna and mitsuba.
Plants for beauty:  Seeds or seedlings of ageratum, alyssum, amaranthus, carnations, celosia, coleus, cosmos, dichondra, echinops, erigeron, gaillardia, gazania, gloxinia, gourds, hymenosporum, impatiens, nasturtiums, phlox and salvia.

Cold and Temperate:
Food garden: Seed potatoes, sweet potatoes, choko, strawberries; seeds of artichokes, asparagus, basil, beans, beetroot, broccoli, burdock, cabbage, capsicum, carrots, cauliflower, celery, celtuce, chicory, collards, coriander, corn salad, cress, cucumbers, eggplant, endive, fennel, kale, kohl rabi, leeks, lettuce, melons, okra, parsley, peanuts, pumpkin, radish, rosellas, salsify, scorzonera, sweet corn, tomatoes, turnips, salad greens like mizuna and mitsuba, and zucchini.

Flower garden: Achillea, ageratum. Alstromeria, alyssum amaranthus, aster, balsam, bellis perennis, bells of Ireland, brachycome, calendula, candytuft, Canterbury bells, carnation, celosia, clarkia, cleome, coleus, coreopsis, columbines, cosmos, delphinium, dichondra, echinacea, echinops, erigeron, euphorbia, foxglove, gaillardia, gazania, globe amaranth, gloxinia, godetia, gypsophila, helichrysum, heliotrope, hellebores, honesty, lavender, marigolds, nasturtium, petunia, phlox, Flanders poppy, portulaca, rudbeckia, salpiglossis, salvia, scabious,  sweet william, viola, zinnia and snapdragons.

Jobs for October
. Water- in all but tropical  climates gardens can do 60-80% of their growing in spring. It’s worth watering now, even if plants are on drought rations over summer.  But do water deeply, then mulch over the damp soil, so the water isn’t wasted.
. MULCH! (Over damp soil if possible).
. Mow! Even if the grass hasn't grown much the weeds need beheading. This is the one time of year we always give our grass a trim.
.  Deadhead bulbs - snipping the old flowers off now before they form seeds will give you more vigorous flowers next year.
. You can never have too many tomatoes or pumpkins (Send any surplus jars of tomato chutney or giant pumpkins to us.) And both survive dust, drought and neglect.

Jam Jar Flowers
BIG bunches need BIG vases. But small, lax-stemmed flowers like petunias, floribunda roses, a single bloom with a few green leaves - or one of those lovable tiny bunches clutched in a kid's fist - need small vases.
 Many kitchen rejects make great vases for this type of bloom - old soy sauce bottles, mango pickle containers or even those little cream jugs you never do get around to filling up with cream. Even eggcups suit smaller flowers, like a nasturtiums or two or a couple of daisies.

A Few Recipes
Rum balls or Chocolate Rough Balls
Traditionally a way of using up stale cake, rum balls are delicious- and don't even have to contain rum, if you and the kids are making them, in which case you just call them Chocolate Rough Balls
Naughty but nice.

Serves:
1 greedy person, or about 30 rum balls
Ease of making: very, very simple and fun for kids
Time taken: 2 minutes to crush the ingredients; 2 minutes to mix, but much longer if you're doing it with kids. Making these is fun, and worth spending a happy sticky hour.

 2 cups chocolate or fruit cake crumbs
 1 - 2 tb jam or marmalade
1 cup crushed macaroons or amaretti biscuits, or even desiccated coconut, but macaroons are much better.
Optional:
 2-tb rum
2 tb chopped sultanas
2 tb chopped soaked dried apricots (especially good if there's no rum)
Mix everything but the macaroons or coconut. Roll into balls. Add more jam- or rum- if too dry. Then roll each ball in the crushed whatever.

Rosewater or Lemon Baklava
These are yummy, sweet and sticky and almost good for you- much lower in saturated fat and sugar than most desserts or cakes or biscuits.
Serves: at least 20- depends how small you make each diamond or square. They’re best cut up as small as you can…even if you do end up eating six of them in a serving.
Ease of making: Moderate- you don't need any experience, but you do need to know how to follow a recipe. The syrup is HOT so kids will need adult help and supervision.
Time taken: 5 minutes to assemble
Equipment
This is much easier if you have a pastry brush, unless you are spraying on olive oil. You will also need a saucepan and a baking dish.
Ingredients
1 pk filo pastry
20 tb butter, melted OR spray olive oil between each sheet. Note: in this case butter gives a better result than olive oil.
6 cups chopped walnuts, or almonds, or raw macadamias, or a mix of any of them.
(Note: you can use half the quantity of nuts- I like a very nutty pastry).
Syrup
2 cups sugar OR honey OR half honey and half sugar
Half-cup water
Juice of two lemons OR ten tb rosewater

Bring sugar and water and lemon if using to the boil. Stir till sugar dissolves- about 30 seconds. Take off the heat. Add rose water after you have taken it off the heat- too much of the scent evaporates if cooked.

Method:
Brush the baking dish with oil or butter.  Spread a layer of phyllo; brush or spray with oil or butter/water. Repeat with two more sheets of pastry.
Scatter on some nuts.
Repeat till all the pastry and all the nuts are used up.
Brush the top with butter or spray with oil. Cut into small squares or diamonds.
Bake at 200C for 30 minutes
Lower the heat to 100 C and bake for another 30 minutes.
Take out of the oven.
While still hot boil the syrup and pour the HOT syrup over the pastry, still in it's dish.
Can be served warm or cold. Store when cool in a sealed container for up to a week. May become slightly soggy, but will still be good.

Store in a sealed contained. Can stay out of the fridge for a day or two; should last a couple of weeks in the fridge- but are highly unlikely to make it that far.
Ps they are also good served hot, warm or cold with cream, icecream, or a good natural yoghurt

Bung it in a Pot Chicken
This takes 1 minute to put together; tastes divine; gives superb leftovers; and will give you an undeserved reputation as a superb cook. O maybe it si deserved… all the favours are sealed in the pot, so it’ll be fragrance and tender. The same method with varied seasoning or vegetables can give you an almost endless final dish.
Ps don’t stint the veg…this dish needs at least as much veg and sauce as meat.
Ingredients:
1 chook
4 cups chicken stock
Water as needed
Optional: any veg you have on hand, sliced or diced
Optional: lots of chopped garlic
Optional seasonings: juice of two lemons or limes; OR 3 cups orange juice and the juice of 2 lemons, plus 3 tb soy sauce, with 6 chopped cloves garlic; OR 1-3 tb good curry paste…which can vary this from giving a Northern Indian to a Southern Thai flavour OR 1 tb fresh thyme OR 1 cup crushed tomatoes and half a cup torn basil leaves added towards the end of cooking.
Optional thickening: 2-tb cornflour mixed with half a cup cream or sour cream or water.

Bung all except the thickening in a pot. Put pot in oven. Turn it on to low- about 150 C. leave till chook si cooked- about an hour and a half for a tender chook to three hours for an elderly one. Mix thickener if sing and add to the pot.  Cook in oven for another 20 minutes then serve.

Ps some favourite veg combinations:
. Zucchini, eggplant, red onion, garlic, crushed tomatoes
. Leeks and potatoes
. Mushrooms and leeks
. Artichoke hearts and potatoes
. Celery, leeks and mushrooms
. Parsnips, potatoes, celery, carrots, lots of chopped parley, 1 tb fresh thyme
. Potato, celery and pumpkin
. Tomato, broad beans or red kidney beans, garlic, onions, chilli
. Celery, tarragon, potato (Add tarragon near the end of the cooking, with cream).