Just Around the Corner

So.  Christmas is just around the corner and I have this odd feeling in the pit of my stomach that I have forgotten to do something...and I hope that it is not that I have forgotten a gift for someone but if I have, well, there is little I can do about that now.  Other than that, the chook is defrosting and waiting to be cooked, the pavlova is cooling on the tray and my feet are looking forward to a day off.  We will be open again on Boxing Day as we have done every year, to save the sanity of the travellers so I will have to make do with just one day off this week for Christmas Day.  That is why my plan is to cook the chicken tonight and save tomorrow for relaxing with family.

At some point in that I might allow myself the luxury of half an hour to read.  At the moment that is Joanne Harris' third installment of Vianne Rocher's story, "Peaches for Monsieur Le Cure".  It all began with "Chocolat", that now well-known book about a mother and daughter, travellers blown by the north wind to the conservative little French town of Lansquenet.  They change the inhabitant's lives forever, tempting them during lent with the mystique of chocolate and generosity.  This time after having fled to Paris in the second book "The Lollipop Shoes", Vianne and her daughters return in response to a letter from beyond the grave and find their old haunt much changed by new arrivals bringing a new religion and culture.  If Vianne did not fit into Lansquenet, then the Muslim community that has taken up residence in Les Marauds, certainly will not.  Father Reynaud is still the self-proclaimed upholder of morality and tradition in Lansquenet but he has changed greatly since he last met Vianne.  In the context of today and the challenges the world faces with social cohesion and tolerance of cultural differences, this books is a lovely way to remind ourselves that friendliness, neighbourliness and gentle acceptance goes a long way to bringing people together.  I am enjoying the book so far and I'm only a third of the way through but look forward to every moment snatched to read a couple more pages here and there.

I wish everyone a happy summer break and hope that you get more time off than me to enjoy a rest at the end of the year.

The Season for Giving

Christmas is coming and it is the season for making things to give friends and family.  A friend of ours gave us some mulberries and as it was getting to the end of the useful fruit on the tree, I turned the harvest into jam.  I was a bit concerned that the fruit might either be too tart because it was not ripe enough or too sugary being over ripe so I decided to add some other fruit and flavours to make it more interesting.  I wasn't sure if it would work but I had some apricots and added some vanilla bean and - well, it worked.  Go figure.  It will be nice to be able to give a jar of jam back to the friend who provided the mulberries.

The same friend gave us some wattle seeds.  Mind you I had to do the tedious work of extracting the seeds which took ages.  It's not hard, you leave the pods in the sun until they dry out and open then scoop the seeds out, or if you have left them on something easily shakeable, they will shake free but of course I didn't do that so had to manually split the pods and flick the seeds out with my fingernail.  Like I said, not hard but time consuming and I'm not sure how rewarding it might end up being.  I've never used wattleseeds before but I am aware that you can use them in the same way you'd use poppy seeds so a little experimentation is in order.  Eating them whole is tough, unlike poppy or sesame seeds they are hard little beggars but I read that you need to toast and grind them in a coffee grinder.  Well, fortunately we have a coffee grinder so no problem.  I have a few recipes that I will be trying as soon as I get the chance.

I've been making Christmas mince pies, experimenting with an almond meringue topping on my gluten free spiced pastry and making the filling less sugary sweet by adding fresh pear to the standard fruit mince.  I won't claim it to be acceptable to diabetics with the meringue topping but it might be better than a regular mince pie.  I would certainly hope so.

So, the real joy of the Christmas season is the preparation building up to the day, the making something to give.  Shopping and Christmas carols have long since worn off but the feeling that I can use my skills to make presents feels good.

Rain, rain, steamy rain

Just before Spirit of the Land earlier this month a farmer told us that they were looking at a good harvest and just needed a spell of rain in October to finish it off.  Well, that much needed rain arrived and I hope for the farming community's sake that it did the trick.  The harvest has started but not in earnest quite as we haven't observed the wholesale emptying of the crops on properties along the Wagga or Boree Creek Roads yet but it is happening.  Mind you we had quite a bit of rain courtesy of a storm cell last weekend.  It was warm (though not as warm as Alice Springs thank goodness) and steamy when the storm hit pelting the shop with driving rain for about half an hour of power threatening lightning.  We have become accustomed to holding our breath during electrical storms as they threaten power cuts which are not good when you run fridges and ice cream freezers and certainly there were a few flutters in the supply but nothing too serious.  The thunder and lightning continued across the weekend especially through the night when a bright flash and very loud crack directly overhead jolted me awake.  But we survived without leaks in the shop.  The crops looked a bit hammered on Monday bent over by the onslaught of wind and rain.  Let's hope that they survived well enough but I guess they will need some drying out which as there is more rain predicted through the week, they might not get the chance to do.  There are pools of swampy water lining the roads again as they did most of this winter.  I noticed on my evening walk last night, that those pools are now smelly, instant breeding grounds for mosquitoes.  With such a flat landscape in this area with little natural drainage, swampy water is a problem, especially in the townships where there are not many stormwater drains.  It just seems to be left to nature to sort out.

I'm starting on my traditional 'build-up-to-Christmas' Dickens reading.  For some reason around this time of year I start hankering to read a Charles Dickens classic.  It's something to do with the idea of experiencing a traditional Victorian winter Christmas.  I don't go in for decorating in the Northern Hemisphere tradition of fir trees, snow scenes and Santa Claus in the summer heat we get here in Australia and New Zealand for Christmas and the idea of eating all the stodgy winter trimmings is too much but I do like to imagine what a Northern Hemisphere Christmas must be like by reading a Charles Dickens novel to get into the Christmas mood.  It doesn't even have to be A Christmas Carol that I read, I get the same satisfaction from any of the classic Dickens tales.  They are all brilliantly written satirical cautionary tales and always worthy of multiple readings.  This time however, I am taking a slightly different tack and embarking on 'Havisham' by Ronald Frame, the back story of the infamous Miss Havisham of 'Great Expectations' re-imagining the events leading to the tragic wedding day abandonment that set the scene for Pip's education in that marvelous book.  I hope it lives up to the original.

Exciting and New

Spring is here, at last!  It has been a long hard winter this year.  We are bracing ourselves for the future as we are being told that we are heading into the worst el Nino conditions this October to January.  But that was not the exciting news, far from it.

No, the exciting bit is that we have put our bookshop online so you can now buy from the books you have seen in our Lockhart shop, in between visits to the town.  It is something we have wanted to do for a while now so we can better promote our physical presence by venturing into the online world.  We still encourage people to visit and discover us in Lockhart which is a pretty little spot in the Riverina but we understand that Lockhart is not exactly on the regular route map for many and you might only be in town once or twice a year.

I am working each day to put more of our extensive stock on the website so keep an eye out on a regular basis as it is worth seeing what is new.  We run a browsing shop where you have the opportunity to stumble across gems you never knew about or were on your 'one day' list but if you don't see what you are looking for, you are welcome to contact us via the store website and we will see if we have what you want in our 'yet to be catalogued' pile.  As you can imagine, it is quite a task and we were eager to get the site up and running and too impatient to wait until I had everything entered to 'go live'.  My goal is to catalogue a pile of at least ten books a day so there will be something new all the time.

Here's the link to the new bluebird-books shop.  www.bluebird-books.com  Have fun shopping for a good book and remember, we hand pick our stock based on my long library background of reading and matching readers with good books.  I know a lot of readers and they have been recommending books to me for many years so I rely on their impeccable taste as much as my own.  I have also stocked the shop with books I've read with my many book groups.  You won't find any of the well-known mass produced romance series or churned out mysteries in our collection I'm afraid.  And I haven't gone for fantasy collections either for the simple reason that if you don't have the whole series all the time then you are usually missing the one particular book that the serious collector is looking for.  No, we specialise in good fiction, literature but not high-brow literary, Australian and New Zealand works, some classics, small print run local histories and a selection of Australian historical texts from a private academic collection.

Read and Enjoy.

Snow falling on NSW

I wish that I could publish photos of snow on our blog as other NSW towns have been able to but despite the rumours, I have not seen any snow in Lockhart over the last weeks of the so-called 'Antarctic Vortex' that we have been experiencing.  I have however, been indulging in an equally fun aspect of winter, that being curling up with a book in a warm bed of an evening.

In the last couple of months of winter I have read two of the Joy Dettman Woody Creek books, true stories 'A street cat named Bob', Making the rounds with Oscar' and 'The house of grief'.

Joy Dettman is a master storyteller and I mean that because she manages to write basically a period soap opera drama that hooked me, a cynic, straight in.  And how does she do this?  Joy is an incredibly adept 'character craftswoman'.  She writes amazingly simple yet incredibly engaging and believable characters that keep readers like me (and my mum) reading when we openly admit that the storylines are silly and soapy.  Ah, but what does that matter in a bit of winter escapism.  I have always said that there is a place in life for reading escapism and so I applaud Joy's skill at being able to suck a cynic into her six book series.  At the end of book two 'Thorn on a rose', I told myself that the plot was implausible and I would not read any further but that did not hold me back for more than a week from plunging into book three 'Moth to a flame'.  Oh, how quickly I abandoned my literary snobbery and opted instead for the pure pleasure of reading and escapism and I am not ashamed.  There is a time and place for relax-a-read and winter is the perfect excuse.  So go for it, in spite of myself, I recommend Joy Dettman's Woody Creek series of which the first book is 'Pearl in a cage'.  I just sold it over the weekend but we still have a number of the books in our shop.

Besides, I think I needed escapism after bravely plowing my way through the harrowing tale of the Farquharson trial in Helen Garner's 'House of Grief'.  It was an engrossing book thanks to the skill of Helen Garner at describing her obsession.  Basically Helen spent years in the press gallery of the High Court in Melbourne following the trials of a father accused of drowning his three sons.  Helen examines public reaction for and against the idea that a loving father could kill his family supposedly to revenge himself on his ex-wife who was getting on with life when he was a broken man who could not.  Many could not believe that an average man and good father could possibly have killed his own children and yet it does happen.  The book was fascinating but I did feel weighed down by it and needed escape afterwards.

The two cat stories provided that in some ways but both touched me in different ways.  They provided a much needed emotional release and an excuse for an indulgent cry.  I believe that we need a private tearful release from time to time to help us deal with all those circumstances in life when as adults, it is not appropriate to throw tantrums or howl in frustration.  Books like 'A street cat named Bob' and 'Making the rounds with Oscar' also remind me how fortunate I have been in life.

The story of Bob and recovering heroin addict James Bowen really touched me.  The ginger cat who would be just an average cat if not for the fact that he was so laid back and tolerant that he could cope with living on the streets of London and busking in busy thoroughfares with his pal James.  For James, caring for his stray friend gave him a reason to pick himself up and get his life in order.  He admits that until meeting Bob, he had led a selfish existence but the wee cat spurred him into the responsibility of looking after someone other than himself.  The pair have become a YouTube sensation with James having penned three bestselling books about their lives as official Big Issue sellers in London.

'Making the rounds with Oscar' is similarly about a special cat.  Oscar is among a number of cats living in Steere House nursing home and helping with the treatment of dementia patients and their families.  Oscar however has the gift of knowing when a patient is close to death and staying with them to provide care and comfort in the last hours of life.  Ordinarily he is standoffish but curls up with a terminally ill patient in need of his comforting presence.  Two feel-good books.  I want my next book to be set in a warm sunny place.  I might take on a Joanne Harris book set in a french summer.  I am looking forward to reading Harper Lee's 'Go set a watchman' but as I have put it on my birthday wish list, I will have to wait another month to see if I am lucky.

On the Road

Apologies to any visitors planning to stop in at The Blue Bird this coming weekend (2nd and 3rd May).  The shop will be closed as we are taking our books on a road trip to The Clunes Booktown Festival in Victoria (near Ballarat).  We are building more and more on the Blue Bird Bookshop and felt that Clunes was a great opportunity to get our name out there in the wider world.

A fella spotted me reading during a quiet moment in the cafe the other day.  "You have time to read?" he asked in a scolding tone.  "I make time because reading is very important'" was my reply.  And I meant it.  For a year while we slogged away trying to start a new business and find our niche, I was so tired that I lost the desire to read.  I would pick up one of our books every once in a while and read a few pages but I didn't get into any of them and I was worried that I had lost that immeasurably important habit of reading.  And it is extremely important.  Reading not only broadens your world view and fills the soul with experience but just the simple act of digesting words on a page keeps your brain active and challenged.  If you let the skill slip, you risk losing it to some degree.  Mental activity is as important to our health and well being as physical activity so I was being very slack about looking after myself.  I work very hard, harder than most people probably see and I am very tired indeed.  We all need a little escape to keep us on the straight and narrow.

At a time when exhaustion and depression was getting me down I picked up Tony Birch's book "Blood".  It is not an upliftingly light story but a tale of hardship, personal battles and family bonds.  His writing easily allowed me to put myself into the place of the characters even though I have fortunately never been through the desperation they experienced.  Nevertheless, I could see how easy it would be to sink to such depths and I knew people who had come close so I I was completely engrossed in the characters and the story.  It was a real page turner and I thank Tony for his amazing ability to create such wonderful writing.  I have loved every one of his books so far and now eagerly await his next.  And most of all I am grateful that he propelled me back into reading is such a dramatic way.  Since then I have easily slipped into every book I have picked up and have remembered how truly important it is to MAKE TIME in our ridiculously busy lives to read.  And so it is without shame or need for excuse that I was able to reply to my critical customer that I, just as much as any other person, am entitled to incorporate reading into my day.  It is for the benefit of the well being of the world.

But that is beside the point.  It also made me realise that the cafe side of our business had been allowed to take too much time priority over the bookshop.  We are working on that balance as our original dream of running a quality second-hand bookshop with coffee and some light meals seemed to be fading from our business plan.  Plans change and evolve as time moves and shapes them but it is important to revisit those original dreams to see if they are still valid and still achievable.  And we believe that they are.  There is always room for a bookshop with a quality collection and now, more than ever, it is important for the world to read and broaden horizons.

So we are spending the weekend in Clunes among other book traders and readers and it will be a fantastic opportunity for us to connect with like-minded people who love books and reading.  Nourish the mind and soul with a good book today and make the world a better place.

Australia All Over

If you are not a fan of the ABC Radio's Ian (Macca) McNamara's regular Sunday morning programme 'Australia All Over' then you missed out on a gem last week.  This Sunday just gone Roger and I were on the show!  Ian caught us at the Eat Local Thursday Market in Wagga and he asked us where we were from.  We gave him a potted history of the Blue Bird and he was charmed by the story of the resilience of Kyriakoula overcoming sudden widowhood with a large young family.  Not to mention Jack and Peter, the colourful characters behind the bar at the cafe.  It was fun hearing ourselves on the radio so I wanted to share the interview for anyone who missed it.  We are about 5 mins 20 in on the podcast.

Australia All Over Podcast Sunday 22 February 2015 

Booth Boost

Late last year the booths went back in.  It saw the completion of a project that had caused us much heartache over the last two years.  We never intended them to be absent from the cafe for so long however a long priority list, logistics and the sheer amount of work that was overwhelming us meant that it took two years before everyone else was finally able to see the vision I had for the cafe from that first day.  I had been steadfastly holding an image in my head, resisting the doubts and the doubters, knowing that it would all be worth the heartache in the end.

In the meantime we tried to reassure customers who recognised that there was something missing from the cafe.  We fielded the frequent question: "why did you take them out?  Didn't you like the booths?"  Unthinkable.  Of course we loved them and felt that they were an intrinsic part of the cafe.  It was not complete without them but there was one light bulb moment some months ago when we realised why so many people were puzzled and in some instances, angry about their absence.  The booths are deeply personal.  People have memories of booths in cafes all around the country that tie into important life moments.  It doesn't matter that you may not have ever been into The Blue Bird in Lockhart before but people recall booths in the cafe that used to be in your home town.  And as one of the last remaining Greek cafes intact, The Blue Bird represents those moments in people's lives when important things happened.  And so I was inspired to write a piece about the booths and am pleased to say that the ABC Open has published my essay.  It is the first story about The Blue Bird but it will not be the last.  Others are already in the pipeline and I am working on a book about the history of the cafe.  You can read a taste of things to come on the ABC Open.

https://open.abc.net.au/explore/88989

The Ghosts of Christmas Past

I guess it is too late to wish the world a happy Christmas.  I don't really go in for tradition though, our Christmas window display this year says as much.  There was no tinsel in sight, no holly, no snow, no Santa.  I always feel sorry for anyone having to wear the red suit in the antipodean heat.

My Christmas display was simple and understated but it caught a lot of people's attention and plenty of comments.  I found an old Lockhart newspaper from December 1952 which featured advertisements placed by the Lockhart and district business people and shopkeepers wishing their customers a happy Christmas.  I cut these advertisements out and pasted them kindergarten style onto cardboard with the heading.  Happy Christmas from the businesses of Lockhart in 1952, do you remember these shops and where they were in the street?  Plenty of people let me know what they remembered and it was interesting which memories stood out.  For instance Alf Watson the milkman was also the night soil collector..although not I think, at the same time.  He must have been an early riser all his working career because both jobs took place in the dark while most of the town would have still been sleeping.

Les Paterson mended shoes and people remembered him for his wooden leg and his drinking habits.  There were a few names remembered as returned diggers from the war who had suffered wounds and were never quite the same.  The publicans were well remembered although most people commented that the pubs, The Gunyah, The Railway and The Commercial, changed hands that often that it would have been tricky to remember who was where at which time without the confirmation that the ads were from 1952.

The Monterey and The Blue Bird cafes were well remembered of course.  They were at the height of their rivalry for top Greek cafe in town at the time.  Leo Vakas was basking in his newly decorated fine example of a Hollywood style milk bar and the Veneris family was settling in to running The Blue Bird without the help of their Matis cousins.

My interest was caught by the first mention I have come across about two other cafes in Lockhart.  Mrs Biscaya's Aussie Cafe and Fred Winnell's Lattice Cafe.  Where were they and how well did they go against the fierce competition from the two Greek cafes?  Most people remembered The Aussie Cafe.  It was down the western end of Green Street and at least one person mentioned that there was also a fish and chip shop somewhere nearby.  The Aussie Cafe seemed to do all the same things that the Greek cafes did, light luncheons, morning and afternoon teas, dinners.  People were more vague about The Lattice Cafe.  It seemed to have been in a two storeyed building on the opposite side of the road and up the Blue Bird end.  I wondered (and still do), if it was the business that took over from The Paragon Cafe when it was vacated by the Veneris and Matis families.  No one seems to remember what happened to either cafe or to the building.  They are very clear about many places and landmarks but the fate of The Paragon building seems to have slipped from the collective Lockhart memory.  And it makes me curious.  What happened to the building?  Why was it demolished or destroyed?  And why can no one tell me what was built in its place.  The theory seems to be that the old Paragon site is still vacant land to this day.  There are two on that side of the street but if so, why has it never been developed and who owns it.  The detective in me wants to know but until someone with a better memory than most in town comes forth, I may have to go on theorising.  Was it the site of some disaster or tragedy?  Is there a dark past to it?  Is there a story that the town at the time wanted to forget and now it is so far in the past that it really has been forgotten?  As Alice in Wonderland once said, curiouser and curiouser.