I knew there must be others around my age out there blogging, but hadn't come across them .... that is, until two nights ago when a determined search unearthed -
'the ageless project' - http://jenett.org/ageless/ and 'Time Goes By' - http://www.timegoesby.net/
Since then there have been some satisfying reads - and there are links to others to keep me occupied for days. I look forward to finding a few kindred souls.
The project this past year in our little corner of the Hinterlands has been to plant up our poor, bull-dozer ravaged house block with an orchard of useful and interesting fruit trees. To date there are around 45. We began with one each of the main citrus varieties and then branched out (pun not intended) to plant a range of tropicals and exotics. Some of these trees grow quite large and there are not too many plantable spots remaining, but today I discovered another exotic fruit that is now a 'must have' - the wampee. On a work trip to Murwillumbah I stopped by at the nearby tourist attraction Tropical Fruit World for some wax jambu fruit for my Laotian-born friend. Also on sale I saw some branches of mysterious brown grape-like fruit I didn't recognise. For my enquiry I was offered a bunch to try. The wampee fruit is easy to eat and the taste a pleasant, tangy surprise. The tree is described as small and attractive and it appears that they are not difficult to grow, so a plant will definitely be sought for tree # 46.
When she was just a few months old we began referring to our little grand-daughter as 'Miss Muffet', and the nick-name has stuck. How then could I resist the unassuming little plant I spied in the garden shop last week sporting the name Miss Muffett (TM) and a cute picture of the story-book character complete with her spider. It was an old fashioned dwarf pittosporum, that normally I wouldn't have looked at twice, but it was the tag that sold it. And it isn't the first time that I've been seduced by an imaginative plant name and eye-catching label. Many new (and old) plants are being popularised and sold these days by clever marketing. I know it will be easier for me to remember this plant by its novelty name. And I know it will be receiving more than its share of TLC.
Yesterday I had the first pick from my 7 bushes. Over 500g of fruit and in perfect condition - the aphids haven't arrived yet this year.
Jam making seems more art than science. Nothing is ever exact. The quantity of fruit to start with, its flavour and acid content, how much sugar and water goes in, and how long and hard it boils. I know someone who always throws in some JamSetta to make sure, but I like the challenge of getting it to jell naturally if I can. With rosellas it's fairly easy as you can use the pectin from the seeds. This is the recipe Download rosella_jam.doc I used 550 gr fruit and 5 cups of sugar and this batch yielded 4 jars.
Saturday - an early trip (but not too early) to our local Farmers' Market to buy produce. We see our former friendly neighbours and catch up on their and our news. We buy some fruit and veg, and then the fun bit - browsing the plant stalls. The fruit tree man is there and we check out his stock for unusual tropical species we don't yet have. Some of these trees grow quite large so we have to think of what space is left to spare. We decide upon a Rose Apple, a Star Apple, a Yellow Mangosteen and a Soursop. It will be weeks before they are all planted out as we need to read about them first and think about the best location.
Home for a late breakfast and an unexpected visit from our old friends living two hours south over the border in NSW. They are running an hour ahead of us on Daylight Saving Time, so our breakfast time extends into lunch for them. They leave and it's time for the newspapers, the e-mail and the garden. A couple of light showers do nothing to reduce the January humidity. We pick rosellas for jam, limes and lemon verbena for cool drinks and snake beans for dinner.
The kookaburras have been for their hand-out of meat scraps and there's just time for a swim and a drink before dinner. Maybe then the video that's been waiting for a few days. We know it can't get any better than this.
I had never thought about where this saying came from, but apparently in the old days when horses were being sold, their teeth were checked to see how old they were. As they aged, their gums receded and the teeth appeared to be longer. Out of this practice arose another common expression - 'Never look a gift horse in the mouth'.
I love the English language and its vast store of sayings for every occasion. I also like the way words and phrases can be fine-tuned to get just the right shade of meaning. So very glad I was born in an English speaking country. I've done some tutoring with adult migrants learning English and have seen them struggle to make sense out expressions like this that we have grown up with.
(Painting is by Chinese-Australian artist YAO DIXIONG, who specialises in horses.)
