Blog – Page 39 – Deborah Makarios

April 23, 2020April 23, 2020

What Kind of Garden?

You’ve probably all seen the magazine-type articles which promise to tell you what clothing style is right for you. You may have taken the quizzes, or even tried to follow their advice. But the problem, I find, is that they have a limited number of stereotyped options: French chic, bohemian, avant-garde, glamorous… For some reason “time-travelling Anabaptist” never makes the list.

As it is with clothing style, so also with garden style – including, alas, an increasingly rapid change in fashions. Suggested styles may include cottage, Mediterranean, formal, Japanese, coastal, prairie or post-modern (plants optional). But again, what if you and your dream garden don’t fit neatly into one of those boxes?

What if your garden style is, er… whatever this is?

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April 14, 2020April 14, 2020

Coming Soon to a Screen Near You

So, I have some bad news, some good news, and some more bad news.

Bad news #1 is that there is a global pandemic on at the moment (you may have noticed, even if, like me, the major difference in your life is the explosion in your email inbox) and this has Repercussions. Many people are seeing Very Bad Repercussions Indeed, so let us all be thankful that the repercussions for publishing books are not quite so dire.

They do, however, mean that I am unable to give you a date when The Wound of Words will be available in paperback (and the date I gave to the National Library will need to be amended). I can’t sign off on distribution until I’ve seen a proof copy, and I won’t be seeing a proof copy until such time as postal services are available for non-essential traffic – and that’s assuming the Print On Demand facility is still up and running. (Subscribe on the Home page if you want to be the first to know when the paperback does become available.)

Enough of the bad news for now: have some good news! The cover for The Wound of Words is complete! Feast your eyes upon this:

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April 7, 2020April 7, 2020

How Do You Like Them Apples?

If I had a dollar for every time I found a recipe which called itself ‘simple’ but was actually simple only to those with larders like specialty stores and a mis-spent youth watching food-related television, I would be… well, marginally more plutocratic than at present.

This baked apple recipe, however, actually is simple. It has few ingredients, many of them optional or variable, and the processing required is minimal. Nor will it have a noticeable effect on your power bill as it does not require an oven to be heated, thus greatly speeding up the whole process.

First, catch your apple – the more or less compulsory part of the recipe. In my case, it is a Bramley from the back garden. Ballarat apples are also suitable (albeit less fluffy once cooked) or, probably, any other kind of cooking apple. I haven’t tried this with any but the two apples named, as this is an unspectacular two-person kitchen, not the National Baked Apple Research Laboratory. Which, I’m sorry to tell you, is not a thing.

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