200 platters of Duck a l'Orange

It's like wild duck farming since a few hundred Whistling Ducks invaded Lake Leaky. They've pushed out the Australian Wood Ducks and are giving our lovely Pacific Black Ducks a run for their money. The plump Black Ducks are a family that nest on our section of Cooroy Creek.


Hell. As prettily plumed they may be, it is time for those boney Whistler marauders to clear the property. I have a plan.


The previous blog offering free citrus fruit from the mini orchard met with resounding success. Only a couple of late-fruiting orange trees to go. Well, with chefs galore down Noosa Beach way we may yet come up with a plan to serve massive amounts of Duck in Orange Sauce to round out Noosa's Longweekend (a 10-day festival of arts culture, food and fashion). Fun and games for the once-were rich and famous. Times are tough. But not as tough as these pesky Whistlers. They perch roof and tree top. Have even been known to caca on the old ute.


Then again a turkey dinner might be the go. There is already a story about gay turkeys if you would care to check the blog archive tucked away in the right hand column.


it seems OK to farm fish. I wonder about wild ducks and brush turkeys. You may already have thoughts on the matter. Don't be afraid to speak out. Twitter me at http://twitter.com/MaXful if that's your thing.

four weddings and a jar of marmalade

Anticipating the whiff of orange blossom and scented orchids as the come-on for weddings and special events, we planted a small citrus orchard beside the orchid igloo.

Our beautiful gardens are intended to pay their own way. And they do in one sense. Peace and calm. Song birds. But what to do with a ton of ripening fruit when the season is full on. Orange navels, ruby grapefruit, Indian lime, Lisbon lemon, and new fangled lemonade. Add in mandarin and blood orange with Buddha's Hand, a pomelo, and native finger limes for good measure. WHAT? to do with the overload of fruit. Most everyone in the district has their own trees.

"Jam. Jam. Make jam," Do I hear you say, "Jam!". We could bottle and label it and give it to wedding guests as a take home memento. Branding at its best. Now there's an idea. Even design special labels. Fruity Affair Marmalade. Just where did we file grandma's old recipes. Oh well, on to the net.

There were 803,000 hits when I Googled 'marmalade jam'. All remarkably the same. "Take two grapefruit; four cups granulated sugar ..." Two to four? Wh-a-a-a-t! 250 grapefruit to 500 cups of sugar! Five hundred cups! Talk about a sugar rush. And we're warned that fizzy drinks are fattening.

'A fruity affair' was fast becoming a fattening affair. Naughty ol' grandma. Also, I'm not that into long engagements and crowded wedding receptions. More a straight party person, that's me. End of jam making. Currently giving away buckets of oranges and recyclable bagsful of pink grapefruit. Come on over while the season lasts.

Bottoms UP! Blooming Stanhopea

Now here’s an orchid that could make a maiden blush! The zany subtropical Stanhopea dangles great clusters of blossom from its nether regions, down below the pseudo bulbs and large leafy foliage.

What first seems like a goofy quirk of nature turns out to be one of the magnificent miracles of the plant world. Overwhelming, viewed from Down Under.

It must be marvellous to happen upon these dizzying apparitions in the jungles of South America – where jungle still remains. Reports of pillage and slash-and-burn operations set off alarm bells. That many wild orchids now exist only through the good graces of botanic gardens and dedicated growers is hardly tribute to man’s passage through the kingdom of plants. Therefore it is important to keep a positive picture of these alluring plants swaying in tropical jungle atmosphere when you set about growing them.

Stanhopeas must never be housed in solid-sided pots (how would the flowers break through the terracotta?) and are best grown in wire baskets and viewed hanging high in your garden or fernhouse. Joy of joys, stanhopeas bloom late in the season after most else has given up the ghost. Late spring into early summer, the sturdy stanhopea keeps popping away. And I do mean ‘pop’.

Here are some varieties that grow easily in temperate outdoor conditions. Happy hunting! Stanhopea nigroviolacea, this fellow seems all-male to me. Big, robust, easy growing. Stanhopea inodora, my favourite, this ice green beauty is a hardy grower, but with a delicate countenance. Stanhopea reichenbachiana, porcelain white and spicy sweet perfumed, Stanhopea wardii, a sunny yellow deckled with tiny purplish flecks. Stanhopea graveolens, cool growing (bush houses, glass houses, shaded patios, garden balconies protected from the wind), this golden beauty hails from Mexico and Honduras. ‘Bottoms up!’ and follow the storylines with Friend Connect (top right) or click in to visit my Stanhopea stories for more orchid growing tips.

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all about orchids, entertaining ways, tips for avoiding tourist traps. The highways and byways of Asia, the Pacific, and Down Under. Burma. Outback Aus. China diaries. Pathways to the orchids.

drawing orchids with a mouse

and here's the finished result

If you can make a simple line drawing you can start illustrating orchids on the desktop. It takes a certain amount of concentration to coordinate what your eye sees on the screen to what your hand (and mind) do with the mouse but, promise, it does all come together. "Practice makes perfect." Who said that! Notice I added a couple of budding flowers to make a better composition. You may choose to use the recently invented drawing block but, artist from way back, I converted to desktop when only the mouse was alive and well.
Use the pencil tool rather than the brush from the Adobe Illustrator tool selection, and the colour/swatch charts to add the yellows. I tend to mix my own colours in CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and K [denotes] Black). This makes magazine production managers and fine-art printers happy and keeps colour true-to-the-orchid. It is a simple matter to switch to RGB (Red, Green, Blue – the colour system for internet) when the artwork is completed.

Next come the leaves and stems (orchid growers refer to them as pseudobulbs). Pencil in first. Find a few greens and grey/browns you like from the palette and complete the leaf section. Paste it behind the orchid. One step at a time gets you there. And, remember the old adage, 'learn by doing' - it's my bible.

and here's the finished result