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KEEPING THE FAITH

The story is told in my book Wildflowers, Wilderness and Wine as to why we established the Remembrance Field of red Flanders poppies on our land at Glen Aplin in 1996.  I would have preferred to establish a memorial drive linking the Granite Belt hamlets of Amiens, Messines, Bapaume, Passchendaele, Bullecourt, Pozieres and Fleurbaix which had once been railway sidings for a soldier settlement where former servicemen who had survived the battles in France settled on rural blocks to grow apples. When farmers feared the poppies could spread and become a weed nuisance, we decided to plant a field with wheat and poppies to show the poppies were not a threat to the rural community.

We first opened our garden and field in November 1996. We charged a $2.00 entrance fee and raised $1,000.00 which we then donated to Brisbane Legacy.

The Australian Returned Soldiers and Sailors Imperial League (the forerunner to the RSL) first sold poppies for Armistice Day 1921. For this drive, the League imported one million silk poppies, made in French orphanages. Each poppy was sold for a shilling: five pence was donated to a charity for French children, six pence went to the League’s own welfare work and one penny went to the League’s national coffers.

Eberhard and I decided that, as a matter of integrity, we must visit the battlefield region in northern France and made arrangements to travel to Europe in January 1997. We were met at Villers-Bretonneux by Jean-Pierre Thierry, O.A.M., President of the Association France-Australie who became our guide for a day in the Somme .

My words will not describe the desolation of the wet, windswept fields we saw that day.

Wheat field near Pozieres

As a farmer I could look at this soil, over seventy years later, and see in the structure of the clods of earth the clay that had been brought to the surface by the trench digging and shelling. It is the clay that shows as white in the field. Read the rest of this entry »

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THE REMEMBRANCE FIELD

Most visitors to my garden understand the significance of the red Flanders poppies growing in the Remembrance Field and the edging hedge of the herb rosemary. Rosemary is the token worn on ANZAC Day and the red poppy is worn on 11th November the date the Armistice Treaty was signed at Versailles to end World War One.

“But, what is the significance of the blue cornflowers?” they ask.

Cornflowers and poppies

My answer is of particular interest to the residents of Brisbane, the capital city of Queensland, because the planting of blue cornflowers represents our remembrance of the crew, doctors and nurses of the Centaur an Australian Hospital ship sunk off our coast by a Japanese submarine. Read the rest of this entry »

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PREPARING THE REMEMBRANCE FIELD

The spring months in Australia are September, October and November but it is only here on the Granite Belt of southern Queensland that this otherwise sub-tropical and tropical State actually experiences a real spring. This is due to our altitude in the border highlands near the New South Wales border. Within Queensland our district is famous for the cold winters, but this year the weather was pleasantly mild. It was the warmest winter since 1993.

Also, at the end of August southern Queensland experienced a minor heatwave, giving the region the hottest August days since 1946. Wow! What a way to enter spring. Naturally such a mild winter and then the burst of heat in August has pushed my garden and the Remembrance Field of red Flanders poppies into rapid growth.

Rows of Flanders poppy plants

The Remembrance Field was cultivated during the first week of July which germinated the poppy plants. In August I went through the field with a hoe, chipping out rows of poppies to thin them. In the photo above you will see one cornflower plant. In August I transplanted several of these seedlings into to field. They will later provide a scattering of blue flowers amongst the red Flanders poppies. The Latin name of the cornflower is Centaurea cyanus and it was the mythical creature the Centaur who supposedly gave the power of healing to mankind. To Australians the Centaur is also remembered as the name of the hospital ship bringing our wounded soldiers home, which was sunk off Brisbane during the second World War by a Japanese submarine. This year a concerted effort is being made to locate the wreck of the Centaur. Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: Australia, Australian, Centaur, Das Helwig Haus B&B, France, Glen Aplin, Japanese, poppies, Queensland, remembrance field of flanders poppies, Rosemary hedge, the granite belt, Wildflowers wilderness and wine

BOOK SIGNING

As a published author I must now undertake book signings at the shops stocking Wildflowers, wilderness and wine. As many of you know I had a life prior to moving to the Granite Belt with Eberhard almost seventeen years ago and the opportunity presented for me to visit the districts of Dalby and Bell again this past weekend.

BOOK CITY Dalby

I was amazed when a man I had known 50 years ago at a time that we were both members of a Rural Youth organization approached me, with an expression of delight, to renew the acquaintance. We chatted about old times for an hour or so before he bought the book.

An important reason why I had chosen to appear at BOOK CITY on Friday was that I wished to attend the Bell camp draft where my 94 year old father, John Mulcahy, was to be honoured. Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: Australia, Australian, Australian stock horse, Bell, book, brother, Dalby, Das Helwig Haus B&B, father, German, Glen Aplin, granite belt, poppies, Queensland, sisters, the granite belt, Wildflowers wilderness and wine, Yamsion

BOOK LAUNCH 2

1. I wrote a manuscript
2. I found a mentor
3. He became my literary agent
4. He could not convince an Australian publishing firm to produce my book Wildflowers, wilderness and wine
5. He edited my book and place it online with http://stores.lulu.com/strictlyliterary
6. It began to sell ‘Print on Demand’
7. 94% of readers gave it a positive review. Lulu gave it 5***** and placed it on the Amazon.com site
8. I arranged to have the book printed for distribution within Australia.
9. I launched the book
10. I must market the book

Border Post article

Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: Australian, Das Helwig Haus B&B, flanders poppy, France, Glen Aplin, granite belt, Queensland, remembrance field, stanthorpe, Wildflowers wilderness and wine, wines, World War One

BOOK LAUNCH

My book, Wildflowers, wilderness and wine has been selling Internationally since February. Now the first consignment of printed books is ready for an Australian book launch.  Wildflowers, wilderness and wine will be presented by our local member of State Parliament, Lawrence Springborg, at the Stanthorpe Art Gallery on Tuesday night 28th July. Eberhard and I are putting on a typical Granite Belt party. We have hired the art gallery as our venue, arranged for the serving of wines from Harrington Glen Wines and for Claudia from Thunderbolt Farm to provide her quality hor d’eouvres.

Front cover

What are my hopes, what are my dreams, what will this book do for my community? Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: Australia, Australian, book, Bungawarra Wines, burke's backyard, cool mountain climate, Das Helwig Haus B&B, fay helwig, Glen Aplin, granite belt, Harrington Glen Wines, Queensland, red flanders poppy, stanthorpe, Wildflowers wilderness and wine

AN IMPORTANT DAY 11NOVEMBER.

As experienced by Fay’s Granddaughter.

I was only 22months of age when I helped my Gran with her duties last year on 11th November and my mother took these photographs to record the event.

Gran was serving breakfast to her guests at Das Helwig Haus B&B when I burst into the room with my usual shout of glee, throwing myself into her arms and giving her a kiss. This caused much laughter amongst Gran’s guests, one of whom said, “She’s a little pink blossom!”

Gran had work to do in preparation for the crowd about to arrive and at all times I tried to assist. I’m getting good at going on to the buses with Gran to welcome the visitors. Then the two of us stand at the entrance to hand out sprigs of peppermint for the guests to use as fly swats.

Welcome

After I had given the last sprigs away to the visitors, I has to fight my way through their legs to keep up with Gran who was telling them all about her garden. Read the rest of this entry »

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FUN OVER FIFTIES

On Sunday 2 November it was my pleasure to escort through my garden the first of three tours this season brought to me by Toni Brennan of Fun Over Fifties Tours. Toni has been bringing tour groups to my garden and to enjoy all the other attractions of Glen Aplin on the Granite Belt in November, for several years.

http://www.funoverfifty.com.au

As with every tour group I positioned these thirty visitors on the veranda of the apartments at Das Helwig Haus B&B where they could overlook the garden while I answered their questions.

Veranda of Das Helwig Haus apartments.

Toni’s tours are punctual and never hurried which means the visitors are happily laughing and have the time to question me in detail as we proceed down through the vegetable and herb gardens. Read the rest of this entry »

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STROLL THE PATHS OF THE FRONT GARDEN

When I first sighted the cypress pine cottage that was to become our future home I was delighted by the honey stained timber which blended naturally amongst several tall eucalyptus trees. While constructing the garden I maintained the natural ambiance by creating rock edged sand paths.

As I lead my tour group towards the southern portion of our front garden I offer them a choice or direction where the path divides around a large bed containing an ivy covered stump, a popular spot for my cat, Patches, to supervise garden activities.

Patches on Ivy

The area fronting our house contained five large eucalyptus trees, the variety known as Peppermint gums, which grow in the cool mountain districts along the Great Dividing Range from Melbourne to the Granite Belt of southern Queensland. Most farmers curse eucalyptus trees because they survive the droughts of Australia due to their capacity to spread roots to match the height of their growth. They are capable of taking every last bit of moisture from the ground. They drop eucalyptus leaves as a mulch  containing a chemical which acts as a growth retardant for grass and other plants within their drip zone.

When he sighted those five trees my father warned, “They’ll rob your garden of all its goodness.”

Other people worried, “What about storms? Aren’t you worried they’ll fall and damage your house?”

Reluctant to remove the trees until I had other plants established I allowed them to remain. Sure, I was forever raking leaves, adding rich composts and pouring on the water, but those trees provided cooling shade in the summer and a degree of frost protection in the winter.

Then disaster struck! Read the rest of this entry »

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WE ENTER THE HERB GARDEN

“Why do you call this your herb garden?

I am always asked this question as we walk down the slope between borders of marigolds and camomile daisies. It is true that this lower terrace at the rear of the house has never been designed as a formal potager. The style of such a traditional garden is usually symmetrical and surrounded by neatly trimmed box hedges. They often contain a fountain, bird bath or sundial in the centre.

The reason that this area at the rear of Das Helwig Haus B&B became our herb garden is its proximity to our kitchen. Rather than keeping a bunch of herbs in a glass on my kitchen table, I prefer to go into the garden to gather fresh sprigs as needed.

Garden path between marigolds and camomile.

I grow the German camomile (matricaria recutita) as an annual plant like the marigolds as it self-seeds and germinates thickly each year in August. The flowers are plucked when fully open, dried and stored. Later they can be steeped in hot water to provide a soothing bed-time tea to encourage a restful sleep.

We pass beside the feijoa trees under which I have planted seed of jam melons as they will need space to run out their vines.  Borage always self-seeds in this area too. It was the ancient Romans who first floated borage flowers in cups of wine. I pick a few dainty blue flowers and hand them to my garden visitors, remarking that I freeze the flowers in ice blocks to later float in a jug of water. The leaves of this herb are cucumber flavoured.

Read the rest of this entry »

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