When Eberhard and I established Das Helwig Haus B&B on the Granite Belt in 1993 we chose to give our business a German name, decorate the interior of our Australian homestead house in a German style and to provide German meals. There is a saying in tourism, “If you can’t be the first, be different.” This proved remarkably effective marketing as it brought us guests who were German born like my husband, Australians with German forebears and others who had holidayed in Germany and wanted to relive the experience.

Later after King Ludwig’s German Restaurant was established at Maleny many of our guests shared with us their memories of dining there. Although we were obliged to close Das Helwig Haus B&B three years ago as Eberhard is now 85 years of age, I have always had a desire to visit this Maleny restaurant. Last Saturday the opportunity presented.

http://www.kingludwigs.com.au

The blackboard said that the restaurant was fully booked, but we had made our reservation two days previously. A rowdy birthday party was underway in the main restaurant, where we declined to sit beside a fire, much preferring tables on the veranda which offered a view down over the Glasshouse Mountains towards Brisbane. After ordering our lunch, I left Eberhard ensconsed at a corner table and went outside to enjoy the view from the garden.

Restaurant balcony

Between the distant  volcanic cores  of the Glasshouse Mountains, the city of Brisbane could be seen to the south.

http://www.glasshousemountains.com.au/

Looking southeast over the Pumicestone Passage and Bribie Island the large white cliffs of sand dunes were visible on Moreton Island at the mouth of the Brisbane River.

This tropical garden was peacefully quiet as I enjoyed the view down over the Glasshouse Mountains towards Brisbane. These mountains were so named by Captain James Cook as he sailed up the Queensland coast in 1770. Apparently there had been rain and the rock face of these volcanic cores glistened with moisture. They reminded him of the glasshouses of England. According to the webpage http://www.kingludwigs.com.au this garden is frequently used as a wedding venue.

If I were a critic doing a revue of King Ludwig’s Restaurant I would not have been impressed with the manner of the pretty German born girl, dressed in a dirndle, who was our waitress. She was too blunt in what I know to be a German manner, considering her time to be of more value, than making us feel welcome. Placing menus down in front of us she recited that the Kalbskotlett, Hirschgulash and Rinderfilet were not available. What, three of the five mains had been deleted from the menu! With two mains from which to choose, she indicated that she expected us to make a quick choice.

Mains

Bauernschmaus, Sauerkraut und Semmelknödel $29.50
Combination of Bavarian specialities: smoked pork loin,
veal Bratwurst & pork sausage with bread dumpling
Sauerkraut & Klaus’ beer gravy

Jägerschnitzel, Gemüse und Spätzle $31.50
Pork filet medallions on a light & creamy mushroom sauce
home-made German noodles & steamed vegetables

Kalbskotlett, Ratatouille und Knoblauch Puerre $35.00
Veal cutlet on a rosemary reduction, garlic mash & ratatouille

Hirschgulasch, Blaukraut und Spaetzle $31.50
Venison ragout on a dark red wine gravy & creamy mushrooms,
red cabbage, home-made German noodles, cranberries

Rinderfilet, Risotto und Gemuese $35.00
Eye filet medallions on a blue vein cheese sauce,
spinach & tomato risotto, steamed vegetables

Eberhard tried a few words in Deutsch with our waitress, but she refused to be drawn into conversation. I asked if if she was on a Work/Travel visa to which she replied “Yes.” When asked if she wished to extend her visa for a second year in Australia, she shook her head in a negative manner. During our time hosting guests at Das Helwig Haus B&B I had always instructed our WWOOF girls to converse with guests, as Australians are genuinely interested in such young travellers.

Eberhard

Eberhard selected a Barischer Wurstsalat from the Light Lunch menu, which he enjoyed. This was a Bavarian salad including a mild Lyoner sausage, onion, gherkin & radish, a garlic & herb vinaigrette with fried bread dumpling.

Bauernschmaus, Sauerkraut und Semmelknödel

The food was excellent and the wine we had chosen, a Cabernet Savignon from the Bethany winery in the Barossa Valley of South Australia was a perfect choice to accompany our meals.

Wildflowers, wilderness and wine

I’m flying to Townsville in northern Queensland on Friday to attend a family wedding. It is only since we closed our Bed and Breakfast business that I’m able to be away from our home on a Saturday. If the weather is good I’ll try to get some photos of the city  to write another travel tale next week.

My book Wildflowers, wilderness and wine is written in a conversational, easy to read style in what is called the travel genre of literature. I wrote about our lifestyle on the Granite Belt of southern Queensland in a wine tourism district with four national parks. I share with my readers our valued recipes, including Eberhard’s famous Black Forest cake and how this was featured on the SBS TV show Food Lover’s Guide to Australia.

Wildflowers,wilderness and wine can be obtained within Australia on http://www.australia-book.com.au

It is also available as a printed book or to be downloaded as a PDF from http://stores.lulul.com/strictlyliterary

Purchase a copy and enjoy hours of happy reading enthralled by my stories of local residents, entertaining guests, gardening with wwoofers and cooking with Eberhard throughout four seasons of a year on the Granite Belt.

Towards the end of July the winter days are starting to lengthen, but here on the Granite Belt of southern Queensland we know we have at least another six weeks of cold and frosty weather before the sun will have any warmth. Thus it was a with great pleasure that Eberhard and I accepted an offer of a day in the hinterland of the Sunshine Coast, north of Brisbane the State capital. A return trip, within the day, entails about eight hours of driving which meant that we decided to leave home about an hour before sunrise. Our driver wanted to spend some time looking over  land behind Nambour with the view of purchasing a block as a future house site. He also has an excellent camera so in this post I’ll be including not only photographs I took during our outing, but some of his shots.

Dawn over Warwick

As we dropped down off the high country of the Granite Belt we could see the valley fogs in in all the hollows.

Sunrise over Warwick

The sun was gilding the clouds as he snapped this photo showing fog over Warwick and blanketing  the course of the Condamine River. I commented that I had never previously driven this highway during winter at such an early hour to be able to witness such a site.

Highway fog

Approaching the intersection of the New England Highway where it branches, the left lane continuing on to Toowoomba and the right veering towards Brisbane, it was clear to see why this junction recently resulted in a fatal accident, as visibility was greatly reduced by the morning fog.

Since the January floods when much of the eastern descent of the Highway at Cunningham’s Gap was seriously damaged our Main Roads Department has committed to spending 40 million dollars to ‘fix’ the problem. Six months later much of the repair has been completed, but the traffic flow is regularly halted to allow one way traffic only.

Cunningham's gap

Biography – Allan Cunningham – Australian Dictionary of Biographyadb.anu.edu.au/biography/cunningham-allan-1941 – Cached

Queenslanders know of Allan Cunningham for his discovery of the Darling Downs and  gaps in the Great Dividing Range that allowed settlers to move west from Brisbane and over the mountains to the fertile grasslands of the interior.

Allan Cunninghams ’s longest, and perhaps most important, journey lasted from 20 January to late August 1827: from the Hunter valley he travelled northward crossing the Peel and Dumaresq Rivers and discovered the Darling Downs before returning to the Hunter valley and Bathurst. While exploring the Darling Downs he found a gap in the ranges, now called Spicers Gap, which he thought would give access from Moreton Bay to the downs, whose fine grazing country he regarded as his major discovery. In July and August 1828 he returned to Moreton Bay by sea and explored the country southward to the Logan River and Macpherson Ranges and found another gap, now known as Cunningham’s Gap.

Eastern escarpment of Great Dividing Range

It is no wonder that early Queensland settlers saw no way to cross this mountain barrier.

As you will note from this photo, once we had crossed the range the sun was shining and we were away from the fog. We stopped at the little township of Aratula for a hearty country breakfast of bacon and eggs. We didn’t make another stop until we were on the Bruce Highway when fresh strawberries tempted us near the Glasshouse Mountains. Here on the Granite Belt, strawberries are grown during the warmer months, while they are a winter crop on the Sunshine Coast.

Pick Your Own Strawberries

With time being a priority, we chose to buy a kilo of strawberries. As a gardener I was interested in observing that the strawberries have been planted through plastic sheeting into mounded rows mulched with sugarcane residue.

Fay with strawberries

I was impressed by the labelling on these strawberries. The label reads:

• COME ON AUSSIE
• “BUY AUSSIE”
• Demand 100% Aussie products
• email: comeonaussie@bigpond.com

What with Queensland’s Golden Circle cannery, which once bought apples from the Granite Belt, now sourcing apple juice concentrate from China and recently announcing they would no longer be canning Queensland beetroot, but sourcing and canning beetroot in New Zealand, the livelihood of Australian farmers is threatened. This is partly due to the presently high value of the Aussie dollar, which is now valued about $1.07 when compared to the US dollar. The high Aussie dollar has meant that the big chain stores and other buyers can afford to buy foods overseas.

The high value of the Aussie dollar has also meant that Australians are taking advantage of this exchange rate to holiday overseas, while International tourists coming into Australia have declined in number. While many Australians see this as a good thing, it is causing a two speed economy in some areas. While statistics show that there is a shortage of workers in mining regions, unemployment in tourism regions is about 10%. Many businesses on the Granite Belt and the Sunshine Coast derive most of their income via tourism, so these districts are hurting.

East over Nambour to the Pacific Ocean

Another factor which has hurt many of the residents of these districts has been due to the Global Financial Crunch when many retired investors lost much of their wealth in the stock market collapse. Suddenly, they found themselves unable to pay off expensive loans, and with less cash to maintain their lifestyle. This has caused a decrease in property values. Our driver was looking at property in the hinterland behind Nambour where many large homes sit on 4-10 acres of fertile land.

A northern view

This acreage block in the photograph above was interesting because the rear acres had been fenced as an enclosure for deer.

Deer farm

During my teenage years my Uncle Jack Kennedy had owned a dairy farm in this district, where he also grew bananas. Our family had visited with his family during a number of holidays. I have early memories of my father driving along un-sealed roads over these hills where dairy cattle grazed. At that time this land was mostly occupied by dairy farmers supplying milk to a factory in Maleny. Many issues caused the decline of the dairying industry within Australia, but probably none more so than the establishment of the European Common Market, which resulted in Great Britain no longer buying butter, cheese and powdered milk from Australia and other Commonwealth countries.

A house on acreage

These fertile hill farms in a high rainfall region were divided up into acreage blocks and sold off as lifestyle properties. As I looked around me, I could see a house on every hilltop.

Hilltop houses

Then our driver took us back further behind the Sunshine Coast, along a mountain top drive through Flaxton and Montville to lunch at a Maleny restaurant I have long wished to visit -  King Ludwig’s Restaurant.

To be continued.

Wildflowers, wilderness and wine

My book about a year in our life managing a busy German style Bed and Breakfast home on the Granite Belt of southern Queensland may be downloaded for about $5.00 on http://stores.lulu.com/strictlyliterary

I can also mail to you a book in print form via http://www.australia-book.com.au

Following on from my three days at Farmfest, I had the pleasure of taking a drive with one of my sons down to Newcastle through scenic country . In this post I will share with you some of the photographs taken during this drive. We left Queensland on Friday 10th June and returned on Monday13th June.

To Newcastle map

June is the first month of winter here in Australia and one of the things I always look forward to on a trip down through the New England Tableland, which stretches from the Queensland border to Tamworth is the sight of all the cottoneaster and pyracantha (Fire Thorn) hedges with their red and orange berries.

Many of these hedges were planted a century ago, with the result that occasionally an individual plant may be spotted in a field, where the seed has been dropped after passing through the gut of a bird. Considering the abundance of these berries it suprises me that there are not more such self-sown bushes.

A lone pyracantha bush

Perhaps, when the original hedges were planted they were fenced off to prevent sheep and cattle eating them until they became established. These hedges are now huge and thorny barriers, which act as windbreaks to protect sheep and cattle from the intensely cold winds that whistle across these hills.

Pyracantha hedge

In previous trips down to Newcastle I have driven the highway to Tamworth and then down through the Hunter Valley, famous for coal mining and wines, to Newcastle.

This time my son suggested that we take a scenic drive, beginning at Uralla and crossing over to Walcha and down through the mountains near the Barrington Tops National Park. As I had never seen this country, I happily agreed.

We left home on a cold frosty morning where the Sattelite Navigation gadget on my son’s car told us the temperature was -4 degrees Celcius. Here at Das Helwig Haus we are about 800 metres above sea level. By the time we were crossing the Ben Lomond Range the altitude was over 1400 metres and there was still frost on the ground.

The altitude dropped a little between there and Walcha, but again as we passed over the Great Dividing Range the Sat.Nav. registered over 1400 metres above sea level. Here on the range the coastal influence changed the country from tableland grasslands to rainforest.

The last of the grasslands.

This high country is noted for fat lamb and wool production, but we were soon winding through the mountains on roads damaged by the heavy trucks hauling out logs to the timber mills. We emerged from forest to see a handy lookout down over a deep valley and across to the Barrington Tops National Park.

A valley view

The air was chilly and I still needed scarf and gloves.

From the lookout

From this vantage point we again entered heavily forested country and proceeded to wind our way down towards the Manning River.

Here we observed people camping beside watercourses in a truly peaceful countryside. Judging by their mobile homes many of these would be the grey nomads who in their retirement years travel around Australia at a liesurely pace.

Crossing the Manning River

We crossed the Manning River a number of times as we proceeded towards the coast. Every time the water was crystal clear and I was reminded of the Henry Kendall poem which I had loved as a child.

Bellbirds

By channels of coolness the echoes are calling,
And down the dim gorges I hear the creek falling:
It lives in the mountain where moss and the sedges
Touch with their beauty the banks and the ledges.
Through breaks of the cedar and sycamore bowers
Struggles the light that is love to the flowers;
And, softer than slumber, and sweeter than singing,
The notes of the bell-birds are running and ringing.The silver-voiced bell birds, the darlings of daytime!
They sing in September their songs of the May-time;
When shadows wax strong, and the thunder bolts hurtle,
They hide with their fear in the leaves of the myrtle;
When rain and the sunbeams shine mingled together,
They start up like fairies that follow fair weather;
And straightway the hues of their feathers unfolden
Are the green and the purple, the blue and the golden.

October, the maiden of bright yellow tresses,
Loiters for love in these cool wildernesses;
Loiters, knee-deep, in the grasses, to listen,
Where dripping rocks gleam and the leafy pools glisten:
Then is the time when the water-moons splendid
Break with their gold, and are scattered or blended
Over the creeks, till the woodlands have warning
Of songs of the bell-bird and wings of the Morning.

Welcome as waters unkissed by the summers
Are the voices of bell-birds to the thirsty far-comers.
When fiery December sets foot in the forest,
And the need of the wayfarer presses the sorest,
Pent in the ridges for ever and ever
The bell-birds direct him to spring and to river,
With ring and with ripple, like runnels who torrents
Are toned by the pebbles and the leaves in the currents.

Often I sit, looking back to a childhood,
Mixt with the sights and the sounds of the wildwood,
Longing for power and the sweetness to fashion,
Lyrics with beats like the heart-beats of Passion; -
Songs interwoven of lights and of laughters
Borrowed from bell-birds in far forest-rafters;
So I might keep in the city and alleys
The beauty and strength of the deep mountain valleys:
Charming to slumber the pain of my losses
With glimpses of creeks and a vision of mosses.



Crossing a creek.



A quickly flowing stream.

After crossing several streams we emerged from the mountain country to discover the towns of Gloucester and Barrington.  While lunching at Barrington we decided that on Monday, on our return trip, we would make a detour into the Barrington National Park, but it was not to be. Rainy weather began on Saturday and as it was still raining steadily when we approached the mountains on Monday morning we gave it a miss.



Approaching the mountains

On this return trip the streams were all rising and by Wednesday, after I was safely home, there were news reports of severe flooding in the Manning and Hunter Rivers. We drove in low clouds and rain until we emerged from the mountain forests when once more nearing Walcha.



Deciduous poplar and pyracantha hedge

We stopped to photograph some of the beautiful country homes of this prosperous region. Set on a knoll, this white farm home looked down over fields grazed by sheep.



A side road and farm entrance.



The farm home

Shortly afterward we reached the magnificent Langford Estate.



Langford service entrance



Langford

The first settler in the New England area was Hamilton Sempill who took up the ‘Wolka’ run in 1832, establishing slab huts where ‘Langford’ now stands. Consequently the hilly country around the present townsite of Walcha was the first part of the New England tablelands to be explored.

The explore John Oxley camped on this site in 1818. http://www.australianhistory.org/john-oxley

A road to Port Macquarie (the template of today’s Oxley Highway) was constructed in 1842 for the transportation of wool from New England to the coast. A postal service was established in 1851 and the village of Walcha was gazetted in 1852. At that time there was a blacksmith’s, a store and a flour mill. A Catholic chapel was erected in 1854, a police station and the first Presbyterian church in 1857 and the Walcha National School in 1859.

In 1861 the population was recorded at 355 and the Anglican church (still standing) was built in 1862. Numbers dropped in the 1860s but the town soon began to grow for two reasons: firstly, cedar-getters were active in the area’s rainforests by about 1870 and goldmining began in 1873 at Tia, Glen Morrison and Nowendoc.

In 1878 Walcha was gazetted as a town and a courthouse was built. A rail link opened to the west, at Walcha Road, in 1882. The town became a municipality in 1889.

The timber industry became important after World War II. The first aerial spraying of superphosphates in Australia took place at a local property in 1950. One of the first instances of aerial agriculture in Australia it greatly increased the stock-carrying capacity of the land. www.smh.com.au/news/new-south…/walcha

We stopped in Walcha for lunch. Monday 13th June was a public holiday, part of the three day long weekend to celebrate the Queen’s birthday. I photographed the autumn colours of the trees lining the streets while we were looking for an open cafe.



Walcha street scene

Smoke rising from a chimney led us to a warm cafe where we were intrigued by a mural painted along one wall.



Cafe mural in Walcha

Three hours later we arrived home to Das Helwig Haus.



Wildflowers, wilderness and wine

My life at Das Helwig Haus on the Granite Belt of southern Queensland is revealed through my book Wildflowers, wilderness andwine which is available on http://www.australia-book.com. au and http://stores.lulu.com/strictlyliterary

I have written another book in the travel genre about travels with my husband, Eberhard, in Germany. This book, The Forgotten Ones, may be downloaded free in blog form on http://fayhelwigauthor.com

Late yesterday afternoon the red steer was released into our dry grass land. The red steer is an Australian colloquial expression for fire. Just as cattle could slowly eat out grass land, a fire will clear the land quickly. Fire, used wisely, an excellent tool. The Aboriginal people of Australia didn’t have matches to start a fire, but they possessed the skill of rubbing two sticks rapidly together until the wood heated and began to smoke. Then a little dry grass was added  to smolder and burst into flame. The original inhabitants of Australia were nomadic people who never established permanent homes or cultivated the land. Instead they hunted for food. The men would regularly burn small areas of grass land when it was dry enough to burn. The heat would draw up moisture from the soil and green grass shoots would sprout. Meanwhile the women would follow after the men to find any scorched lizards or other small animals they could use for food. After a week or so when the country had greened the men would return to hunt and spear wallabies or kangaroos grazing on the fresh green grass. The eucalyptus trees evolved the ability to adapt to fire and will quickly recover from any burning of bark or leaves. Other Australian plant species need smoke to cause them to open their seed pods, enabling the seed to drop into the rich ash a day later. Fire is a natural part of the Australian ecology.

A cold fire

The definition of a cold fire is one that crawls along the ground. A hot fire races up the bark of a tree and sometimes ignites the eucalyptus leaves and then roars through the tree tops. Such wild bush fires are now common in Australia.

In my earlier posts about eucalyptus trees I’ve mentioned how, thanks to pollination by the introduced European bee and the lack of regular Aboriginal style burning, young eucalyptus trees have sprung up like woody weeds and flourished across the rough and hilly country of Australia. I believe that this is one of the reasons that bush fires have become such a serious hazard for many rural regions.

It is possible for farmers to obtain permits, under strict conditions, in which they have the right to conduct their own burn offs of to minimize the risk of wild fires, which could be started by lightening strikes during spring storms. In recent times the Rural Fire Brigades, comprised or volunteer workers, has been equipped by our State governments to combat bush fires. However, they appreciate donations to cover fuel and other expenses. Thus, they offer to assist older people like myself to burn our farm land, in return for a donation. This then means that our dwellings and other structures are protected by a firebreak should a wild fire occur.

Rural Fire Brigade

Fireman ignites dry grass.

The sun had set and the air was cold. There was no risk that the fire could get away. This morning I took my Jack Russell terrier dog, Trixie, and set our to survey our burned property.

Our entrance sign

This photo shows the Das Helwig Haus B&B sign at our entrance from Mt. Stirling Road, Glen Aplin.

Our river water tank

It is with good reason that this district is known as the Granite Belt as the rocky hillsides are strewn with granite boulders, exposed when the grass is burned. Our water tank is perched on a large boulder on our high land land above the house, from where I can gravity feed the water back to the house garden.

Wild ducks on the Severn River

It is from this water hole in the Severn River that I pump water to irrigate my garden at Das Helwig Haus B&B and the Remembrance Field of red Flanders poppies. I now have a young man from South Korea, called Jin, a member of WWOOF working with me.

Jin thins poppies

Yesterday Jin was thinning poppies and weeding the Remembrance Field. Today he is stick-picking small branches of dead wood, not burned by the grass fire, and stacking them against dead trees which have fallen across our paths around the farm.

Burning a fallen tree.

Book cover

Das Helwig Haus B&B owned by Eberhard and Fay Helwig is situated at Glen Aplin, near Stanthorpe on the Granite Belt of southern Queensland, Australia.

This is a region noted for Australian wildflowers, four wilderness National Parks and sixty wineries. In 1997 Eberhard and Fay established the Remembrance Field of red Flanders poppies, a European wildflower.

To obtain Fay’s book Wildflowers, wilderness and wine email Fay on helwig@halenet.com.au

Internationally it is available on the Amazon.com website.  http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002ACXQ0M/sr=8-1/qid=1244294755/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&qid=1244294755&sr=8-1&seller=

http://stores.lulu.com/strictlyliterary

http://books.google.co.uk/

I have the ability to recognize and name the origin of many of the mature trees that I see in my travels. This talent became obvious when undertaking a day tour with Eberhard through Los Angeles in 1990. Streets were frequently planted with just one species like Camphor Laurels or Liquidambars. In the garden of a house, formerly owned by Jane Mansefield, I spotted a beautiful specimen of the Bunya Pine Araucaria bidwillii. The tour guide must have overheard my quiet comments to Eberhard, because as the bus was driving down a boulevard, he asked me the name of the trees lining the road. I instantly responded, much to his surprise, “Canary Island Palms.” It didn’t surprise me that I could name the trees as the climate of Los Angeles and southern Queensland are similar and I was familiar with all the trees I saw that day.

I tell my friends that I retreat to my garden to recharge my batteries. In the same way I like to travel once a year overseas to allow my mind to relax from the pressures of life. My brain can then absorb and evaluate what I am seeing.

I particularly like to observe trees and their relationship with the environment around them. It was only when I began to travel overseas that I realized how silent were the forests of China, north America and Europe. Not only Australian forests, but the whole of Australia, including our cities are filled with the calls of a vast number of different bird species. We don’t just have the sparrows and pigeons of the northern hemisphere in our cities and towns – many Australian birds have adapted to city life, partly because  Australian trees and shrubs have been planted in suburban gardens.

Hong Kong eucalyptus

When I saw this eucalyptus tree in the  Kowloon Walled City Park - once a lawless, Hong Kong high-rise slum which was transformed into an award winning park in 1995, I recognized it as a relatively young specimen of a tree that I know by its local name as a Chinchilla White Gum. Carol, my eldest daughter, who accompanied me on this trip to Hong Kong lives in the town of Chinchilla, Queensland. This tree, like most Australian eucalyptus, has the ability to drop off lower limbs each year and concentrate its growth ever higher.

I recently visited Dalby, a large town established on the treeless plains of the Darling Downs. When my parents moved in 1944 to a farm in the foothills of the Bunya Mountains, named because of the Bunya Pine trees growing on the mountains, Dalby became our main business center. In 1972 with my husband and children I moved to live in Dalby. In 1986 when my first marriage ended I moved to Toowoomba. After marrying Eberhard Helwig  I again moved, this time to the Granite Belt where Eberhard and I established Das Helwig Haus B&B.

When Eberhard and I returned to Dalby three weeks ago we stayed two nights with friends, Meg and Peter Stevenson,  mentioned in my book Wildflowers, wilderness and wine. Seeking a little solitude, I walked alone through the suburban streets of Dalby, photographing the eucalyptus trees.

Dalby example of a Chinchilla White Gum.

Our friends, Meg and Peter, live a couple of houses back from this view, but that extremely straight and tall example of a Chinchilla White Gum is in their garden. When they bought their Dalby home in the 1970’s the garden was already planted with Australian eucalyptus trees.

Remember, these homes were built on the black soil, treeless plains of the Darling Downs. Until the town was established it was only along the slow, winding route of the Condamine River and other tributaries that the river gums, a common name for a form of eucalyptus tree, grew.

For many years a  Queensland State Forestry Nursery in Dalby provided inexpensive Australian shrubs and trees at a time when Australians were encouraged to plant indigenous trees.  I can honestly say that although I planted other Australian trees in my Dalby garden, I never planted any eucalyptus trees. The result 30 years later of planting many different varieties of eucalyptus trees in so many gardens became apparent to me on this recent visit.

1. The planting of trees unsuitable to house gardens has occurred, like the example of this Chinchilla White Gum which now towers above other trees and the houses of the street where my friends live. Such a tree could be hit by a lightening strike or strong storm winds and fall on surrounding houses,
2. A monoculture of eucalyptus trees was created. Whenever a monoculture occurs in agriculture it usually results in a build up of predators.

Three weeks ago as I walked the suburban streets of Dalby I became aware that many of the eucalyptus trees were hosts to the parasite mistletoe, a predator.

Street eucalyptus trees in Dalby.

After taking several photographs I returned to the home of my friends and asked Peter was he concerned about the mistletoe on several of the eucalyptus trees in his garden? Peter replied, “As fast as I cut off one clump of mistletoe, another appears.” He saw it as a hopeless task to contend with the mistletoe.

Dalby eucalyptus trees

A monoculture of eucalyptus trees, even though they are of different species, has been created in the gardens of Dalby.  Australia possesses a natural predator of eucalyptus trees which I believe will destroy these trees over the next 30 years. The green clumps hanging from the trees in these photographs are the parasite plant called mistletoe. The only State in Australia which does not have mistletoe is Tasmania.

The seeds of the mistletoe are eaten by the Australian bird, appropriately called the Mistletoebird. It is probably more common than realized because it keeps mainly out of sight, frequenting dense foliage and flying high over tree tops.

*Page 242 of Every Australian Bird Illustrated

The seeds pass through the bird and in sticky faeces are deposited on the branches of eucalyptus trees, where the seed produces roots and as a parasite plant grows on the sap of the parent tree. Many seeds of mistletoe will be spread from this plant to other branches of the tree until enough clumps form to kill the host tree.

The residents of Dalby have provided the environment for the Mistletoebird to thrive – food and nesting sites.  The result is the eucalyptus trees in the gardens of Dalby are now infested with a parasite which will kill those trees.

Dying eucalyptus tree

Meanwhile the same sight may be seen along many Australian roads. Above is a view of a dying eucalyptus tree as it struggles to feed the parasitic mistletoe clumps.

Mistletoe in trees beside the road.

These roadside trees are typical of the saplings that grow thickly on road verges. They too are being slowly killed by the parasitic mistletoe plants.

Note in the next photo how mistletoe has already killed its host tree.

Dead eucalyptus tree.

I wrote last week about how I believed the European bee, as a feral insect, had colonized the hollow limbs of aged eucalyptus trees. It had then pollinated all the blossom of the eucalyptus trees. A century later much of Australia is losing grassland each year to what are euphemistically called ‘woody weeds’ as the eucalyptus trees spread across the hillsides.

I drew the conclusion that these thickets of young eucalyptus trees were largely responsible for the increasing severity of Australian bushfires.

I stated my belief that young eucalyptus trees on the hillside of the the valleys containing city reservoirs were preventing rainwater runoff reaching the reservoirs.

Am I a voice crying in the wilderness? Does no one else see these problems caused by the proliferation of eucalyptus trees?

What about the mistletoe? Does anyone else see the spread of this parasite? What will be the situation in Dalby in another thirty years, or after another century in Australian wilderness regions?

Book cover

Das Helwig Haus B&B owned by Eberhard and Fay Helwig is situated at Glen Aplin, near Stanthorpe on the Granite Belt of southern Queensland, Australia.

This is a region noted for Australian wildflowers, four wilderness National Parks and sixty wineries. In 1997 Eberhard and Fay established the Remembrance Field of red Flanders poppies, a European wildflower.

To obtain Fay’s book Wildflowers, wilderness and wine email Fay on helwig@halenet.com.au

Internationally it is available on the Amazon.com website.  http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002ACXQ0M/sr=8-1/qid=1244294755/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&qid=1244294755&sr=8-1&seller=

http://stores.lulu.com/strictlyliterary

http://books.google.co.uk/

With this post I’m going to share an extract from my book Wildflowers, wilderness and wine. The wilderness regions of the Granite Belt are comprised of large rock outcrops and an abundance of eucalyptus forest, but it was not always like this.

Granite rocks

When the explorers rode their horses through this country they had to avoid the rocks, but they did not encounter the dense eucalyptus forests that now cover the hills. One of my Grandfathers, Hugh Mulcahy, was born in Stanthorpe on the Granite Belt in 1876 and he was able to tell his children of remembering this country as open forest. What did he mean by open forest? Forest in which the trees grew sufficiently far apart to allow riders to pass between them, where grass grew and cattle grazed.

Aged eucalyptus trees

These two aged trees on our farm at the rear of Das Helwig Haus B&B show the spacing of open forest country.  But look, they are surrounded by sapling eucalyptus trees. What changed the country?

EXTRACT

After a devastating bushfire tore through the Granite Belt, three young WWOOF members from Germany were helping me clear debris when I explained why this change occurred in the century after my Grandfather was born.

Vanessa tells me that yesterday they had seen a young fox. I lead them to a rock outcrop where we all sit on boulders while we discuss feral animals and other man made Australian problems. The topic ranges through foxes and cats, the prickly pear and cactoblastis moth, the cane beetle and cane toad, until I ask, ‘Do you think of the European honey bee as a feral insect?’

‘The honey bee?’ Vanessa sounds incredulous.

‘Yes. A hundred years ago, this was open forest country. My Grandfather was born in Stanthorpe and he could remember this country as open country, but not my father.’

‘Are you saying the bee changed the nature of the country?’ Sabine asks.

‘Yes. The little Australian native bee wasn’t capable of pollinating all the blossom on these trees,’ I point to a mature tree still smouldering at the base, ‘so there wasn’t a lot of fertile seed. Regular Aboriginal burning of the country killed off young seedlings, and encouraged the grass to grow.’

‘They did that so the patches of green grass attracted kangaroos and wallabies, didn’t they?’ Dirk volunteers.

‘Yes. It made hunting easier for the men. Then came the white man, who only cleared the good agricultural land, and introduced the bees for honey.’

They are listening intently. Better to enjoy a lecture, than pick up sticks and we are all content to sit in the sun.

‘The European bee competed with birds and native bees for hollow limbs to store their honey.’

‘Do you ever rob the hives for honey?’ Sabine asks.

‘Too much work.’ I continue, ‘This much bigger bee was capable of pollinating all the blossom of the eucalyptus trees so there was an abundance of fertile seed. Without regular burning of the hillsides, the seedlings soon grew to saplings and they too began to flower. Now, wherever you look around this country the hills are heavily forested with young trees.’ I wave my arms in a circle to encompass the valley.

Granite Belt hills

‘But surely that is not a bad thing,’ Dirk says. ‘We need trees to combat the greenhouse effect.’

‘Maybe, but I don’t like it for a number of reasons. The soil can’t sustain these thickets of trees. They will never reach the grand size of the original parent tree, and as we have just seen, they constitute an immense fire hazard.’

‘What else?’ Sabine asks.

‘The bees are changing the domination of species throughout Australia, encouraging especially the eucalyptus to flourish,’ I shake my head in disgust. ‘Some National Parks were specifically set up because of native plants that require the deep pollination of the little Australian native bee. The nature of these parks will change, unless the European bee is eradicated, or the eucalyptus are treated like a weed and poisoned.’

‘Will that happen?’ Sabine asks.

‘No. The European bee is too widespread all over Australia, and the crops and fruit trees introduced into Australia by the settlers require their pollination services. We wouldn’t have a plum crop without bees to cross pollinate our trees. Nor will the city people ever allow the eucalyptus trees to be thinned. Like Dirk said, they think country people should be planting more trees because of the greenhouse gasses, not bulldozing them down.

Das Helwig Haus B&B owned by Eberhard and Fay Helwig is situated at Glen Aplin, near Stanthorpe on the Granite Belt of southern Queensland, Australia.

This is a region noted for Australian wildflowers, four wilderness National Parks and sixty wineries. In 1997 Eberhard and Fay established the Remembrance Field of red Flanders poppies, a European wildflower.

To obtain Fay’s book Wildflowers, wilderness and wine email Fay on helwig@halenet.com.au

Internationally it is available on the Amazon.com website.  http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002ACXQ0M/sr=8-1/qid=1244294755/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&qid=1244294755&sr=8-1&seller=

http://stores.lulu.com/strictlyliterary

http://books.google.co.uk/

Book cover

When I was a child I was taught that the Darling Downs possessed one of the best areas of agricultural soil of the world – the black color indicating the wealth of humus. But what is the Darling Downs? It is a region of country west of the Great Dividing Range of eastern Australia in south-eastern Queensland. Toowoomba, at the crest of the Great Dividing Range, is the city gateway to the west. This city has become notable not only for it annual floral ‘Carnival of Flowers’, but as a city of boarding schools plus a University to serve students from the south western portion of the State.  It is also a haven where the elderly retire because of large hospitals, other medical facilities and a cool mountain climate. Warwick is a smaller city at the southern end of the Darling Downs. Dalby is at the northern extremity and by the time you have reached Roma in the west you have left the Darling Downs and entered the grazing country of the Maranoa.

In my youth I lived north of  Dalby near the Bunya Mountains and attended boarding school in Warwick - another city of private schools which provide high school education for children from more isolated regions. When I married Stewart McIver I lived on farms at Bell prior to moving into Dalby. When that marriage ended I moved to Toowoomba where I met and married Eberhard Helwig and we later moved to Stanthorpe in the border highlands south of Warwick.

Map of the Darling Downs

Last weekend we left home on the Friday morning and drove via Warwick and Toowoomba to reach Dalby 3 hours later where I spent the afternoon signing books at the Dalby BOOK CITY store. The next day we caught up with family and friends at Bell where my 94 year old father was the guest of honour at a Campdraft. Sunday we spent another 3 hours driving home on the western route through Millmerran to Inglewood before turning east to our home just south of Stanthorpe. I sketched this map so you could follow our travels.

Darling Downs roads

The most notable aspect of the Darling Downs between Toowoomba, Dalby and Millmerran is this area has always been tree less plains with heavy black soil. It is called self-mulching soil as it cracks wide open and crumbles in on itself when dry. Then when wet it swells and becomes as sticky as clay. Because of the depth of such shifting soil it is difficult to establish a solid foundation and it has been customary for houses to be built of timber on stumps above the ground, where the wooden floors can be raised and lowered a little if windows or doors jam tight.

When I visited my daughter Debra on the Nerrewin farm near Dalby in May I photographed these long tubes of  grain sorghum. Instead of building tall permanent silos, the farmers now use these inflatable tubes into which they blow grain for storage. If the price is poor or they can’t obtain transport for their grain it can be stored temporarily in this manner.

Dalby grain

Debra’s blue cattle dog, Bonnie, was playing chase with my puppy, Trixie.

Between Dalby and Millmerran on our return drive last weekend I saw many more such tubes filled with stored grain.

Fallow land

In the far distance of the photos above and below you can see the long white tubes of stored grain. There are no fences dividing the farms as this is agricultural country without roaming livestock. The farmers keep the grass along the road verges mowed short to prevent the growth of weeds and seed blowing onto their land.

More fallow land

One of the significant ways in which farming on the downs has changed in recent years is that soil is seldom ploughed. Once a crop is harvested the farmer will leave the residue on the land to avoid soil erosion. He then uses a chemical herbicide to prevent weed growth and maintain moisture in the soil until it is time to establish the next crop. He then uses direct tilling to insert seed, water and nitrogenous gas into the earth at planting time. A cluster of trees indicates the position of a house. Most homes are surrounded in this manner with a buffer of trees as wind protection.

Wheat in stubble

After I alighted from our car to walk along this stretch of road to take photographs, a farm utility came from this house with a concerned farmer to inquire if our vehicle had broken down and if we needed any help? Such is the friendliness of country folk. Note the bright blue of our clear winter skies.

A crop of wheat

When I was a child the Darling Downs was known as the wheat bowl of Australia and recognized for the quality of its prime hard wheat, high in protein.  Wheat is planted during the winter months and harvested in October/November. Trends have changed and now much of this region is planted with summer grains and wheat merely serves a place in crop rotation. By November the remaining fallow soil I’ve shown in these photographs will be planted with cotton or the summer grains of corn, sorghum and sunflowers.

Das Helwig Haus B&B owned by Eberhard and Fay Helwig is situated at Glen Aplin, near Stanthorpe on the Granite Belt of southern Queensland, Australia.

This is a region noted for summer stone-fruit, autumn apples, winter  Christmas in July dinners and a spring Remembrance Field of red Flanders poppies.

Fay has published a book called Wildflowers, wilderness and wine. To obtain a copy directly email Fay on helwig@halenet.com.au

It is available on the Amazon.com website.  http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002ACXQ0M/sr=8-1/qid=1244294755/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&qid=1244294755&sr=8-1&seller=

http://stores.lulu.com/strictlyliterary

http://books.google.co.uk/

The Nan Lian Garden is situated at Diamond Hill in Kowloon. This garden was created in the style of the Tang dynasty (618AD to 906AD) and features unique timber structures, water ponds, various odd shaped rocks and lots of old and valuable trees. Carol and I followed its one way circular route watching its splendor unfold with every step. In this garden we encountered other tourists from around the world, but again it was a garden that didn’t appear to be used by the local Hong Kong population.

Odd shaped rocks

This was a garden that lacked shady areas and I quickly began to sunburn in a new blue top I had bought – it had no collar. This was our hottest day in Hong Kong and we quickly felt parched. The garden was kept moist by irrigation systems spraying a constant mist into the foliage of the trees and shrubs.

A hot day

The Nan Lian Garden is situated in a bowl surrounded by high rise buildings. Many Asian gardens are developed within a depression thus allowing for the construction of ponds in the lower portion. This garden possessed two large ponds – The Lotus Pond surrounding the golden pagoda and the The Blue Pond.

Bougainvillea

These shaped trees were a labeled as Bougainvillea Glabra Variegata. Obviously they had been cultivated and pruned for the decorative foliage, not flowers. At the time that we visited the garden there were no flowers to be seen, other than water lilies in The Lotus Pond.

Golden structure

There were red arched bridges across The Lotus Pond to this golden pagoda but they were closed to tourists. The team of gardeners wore yellow jackets and straw hats, but did not appear to be doing any serious work on the day that we were there other than keeping the shrubbery moist.

Garden workers

The Blue Pond was stocked with fish and would have been a beautiful sight in the early spring when weeping wisteria and cherry trees, green in this view, were flowering.

The Blue Pond

On the opposite side of The Blue Pond was The Pine Tree teahouse overlooking this lovely green oasis. It would have been a perfect spot to relax in the cool shade of the deck fronting the water, but cameras were not allowed and entry onto the deck overlooking the pond was denied unless one was willing to partake in a tea drinking ceremony within the teahouse. We wandered on.

Blue Pond rocks

Cascading water and waterfalls are frequently a feature of Asian gardens and the site of so much water splashing down this wall on a hot day drew our attention to the Long Men Lou restaurant hidden behind the glass window over which the water washed.

The Long Men Lou restaurant

Once more cameras were forbidden but Carol and I were given a table on the other side of this screen of water, which provides privacy for the large dining room discreetly hidden in this section of the garden. Once more only vegetarian cuisine was offered and we again chose a set menu. We are both adventurous eaters with few food dislikes so being presented with an assortment of new dishes is an opportunity we relish.

Rather reluctantly we left the cool interior of the restaurant to proceed towards The Nunnery.

Bright sunlight

This parapet, as we climbed steps towards The Nunnery provided a great overview of the garden and Carol took the opportunity to video the scene.

Carol

We discovered a series of formal water lily ponds situated immediately in front of The Nunnery.

Water lilies

The Nunnery

We walked across this courtyard admiring the topiary and the water lily ponds to the shade of the overhanging roofs, from which we could look down over the ponds.

Water lily ponds

Our day ended on a comical note when we arrived back at our hotel to find a film crew in the driveway. They were filming men in a Chinese lion suit leaping about on tall poles.

The Chinese lion

Prancing lion

Das Helwig Haus B&B owned by Eberhard and Fay Helwig is situated at Glen Aplin, near Stanthorpe on the Granite Belt of southern Queensland, Australia.

This is a region noted for summer stone-fruit, autumn apples, winter  Christmas in July dinners and a spring Remembrance Field of red Flanders poppies.

Fay has published a book called Wildflowers, wilderness and wine.

It is available on the Amazon.com website.  http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002ACXQ0M/sr=8-1/qid=1244294755/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&qid=1244294755&sr=8-1&seller=

http://stores.lulu.com/strictlyliterary

http://books.google.co.uk/

It will be no surprise to you that I spent a day in Hong Kong walking through two gardens. I’m going to write two separate posts to describe these gardens to allow me to use sufficient photographs to adequately illustrate their differences.

The first garden we walked through was the Kowloon Walled City Park. This was once a lawless, high-rise slum which was transformed into an award winning park in 1995. It features a Qing dynasty almshouse, the Old South Gate, pavilions, sculptures, flower gardens and a playground for children.

Old stone walls

Drs. Jean Stone Willans and Rick Willans brought the message of Charismatic renewal to Hong Kong in 1968 and started the Society of Stephen. This movement of the Holy Spirit united many – Chinese and Westerners, Catholics and Protestants, from all walks of life – in the fullness of the New Testament faith. In 1973, Miss Pullinger brought a heroin-addicted Triad leader to the Willianses; he withdrew in their home without sickness or pain (with no medication) through repenting from his crimes, believing in Jesus and praying in tongues given by the Holy Spirit. The news spread – even to the Walled City drug dens – and soon the Willanses were pastoring several “House of Stephen”, where scores of addicts likewise began new lives with the help of volunteer workers.

This paved the way for the law to enter into this once dangerous area and by 1995 the slum was cleared and the area established as an inner city park.

The south gate

The thick walls and narrow entrances would have made entry into this den of thieves and drug addicts extraordinarily difficult.

I was surprised by how few people we encountered as we walked through this park. A group of four elderly men rested in the shade of a shelter while their singing birds hung in cages suspended from nearby trees. No where did I see the groups of elderly men and women playing cards that are so characteristic of the parks I have visited in mainland China. Although tables and seating were incorporated into the park design they were not in use the day we visited.

Tables

This was not a colorful garden, but Carol’s red skirt added a bright splash to my photographs.

Carol shelters in shade

An interesting feature of this park were the tiled paths and open areas, constructed with black and white pebble mosaics. There were eight floral walks, each with a different pattern under our feet, and each designed to feature  plants of different colors. For instance The Red Leaf Path was designed to capture the vivid colors of autumn. Plants with red leaves or with leaves that turn red in winter, including queen crepe myrtle, mountain tallow tree and copper leaf were planted to brighten the path. We were not there in autumn and we had missed the early spring blooming of other sections.

Mosaic paths

It was a particularly hot day and one of the shady areas proved to be the Chinese Zodiac Garden which has a dozen smooth, white-stone-sculptured animals. They are used to symbolize people born in different years. These zodiac symbols are arranged according to the tian gan (heavenly stems) and di zhi (earthly branches) of Chinese geomancy.

The first of the 12 zodiac symbols is the rat, its sharpened nose pointing south. All of the animals have been copied from other sculptures. I regret now that I didn’t photograph the elegantly resting horse which is a copy of the stone horses at the Ming Dynasty Tombs, northwest of Beijing. The big clawed tiger, its fin-like back is  modeled after the legendary Zhou Dynasty mascot.

Chinese Zodiac Garden

I was born in 1940, the year of the Dragon. In this view you see a dragon, a rabbit, a tiger and the head of an ox. This year, 2009, is the year of the ox. In 2012 it will again be the year of the dragon.

Water feature

The sight of this eucalyptus tree, commonly called a Lemon Scented gum, caused me some amusement. We had rounded a corner to be greeted by this incongruous specimen. As eucalyptus trees go, it made a beautiful picture with its straight white stem, but if this tree was planted in 1995 just imagine what a massive tree it will be a hundred years from now. It towered above all the other trees and shrubs leading me to believe that whoever planted it had no idea of how large it would grow.

Eucalyptus tree

I have photographed many older eucalyptus trees in China where they appear to thrive due to the higher rainfall than they would commonly experience in Australia and because they don’t encounter the same insect pests or diseases. They are also usually more shapely than their parent Australian trees, which suffer from wind and storm damage.

With one more look at the map to ensure we hadn’t missed any of the garden, Carol and I decided to move on to the Nan Lian Garden at Diamond Hill.

Kowloon Walled City map

Das Helwig Haus B&B owned by Eberhard and Fay Helwig is situated at Glen Aplin, near Stanthorpe on the Granite Belt of southern Queensland, Australia.

This is a region noted for summer stone-fruit, autumn apples, winter  Christmas in July dinners and a spring Remembrance Field of red Flanders poppies.

Fay has published a book called Wildflowers, wilderness and wine.

It is available on the Amazon.com website.  http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002ACXQ0M/sr=8-1/qid=1244294755/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&qid=1244294755&sr=8-1&seller=

http://stores.lulu.com/strictlyliterary

http://books.google.co.uk/

One of the interesting things about Hong Kong are the green hills, especially in the region known as the New Territories where Paul took us on a sightseeing drive on the Sunday of our holiday. It seemed that many other residents of Kowloon also relax in this region at the weekend. There are lots of sheltered coves for fishing boats or pleasure craft, golf courses and swimming beaches. And always, there are numerous vendors of food catering for the holiday and shopping atmosphere.

Dried seafood market

All along this waterfront front and jetty small open boats carried an assortment of dried foods on display. One person under the umbrella handled the sales, while another in the boat made up the packages.

Dried seafoods

There were a number of seafood restaurants at this cove spilling out under canvas awnings from the main building, so after a wander around we decided to have an early lunch as we wanted to take tea at The Peninsula Hotel later in the afternoon.

Fresh seafood

There was every imaginable type of live shell fish, crustaceans, squid and swimming fish. Carol and Paul went to make their selection while I made friends with the pampered poodles at the nearest table.

Her brown poodle

His white poodle

It seems that many of the executive class of young Kong Kong couples are choosing to have pet dogs rather than a family. While I sat at this table I noted many breeds of dogs, both large and small, with the exception of the terrier breeds. Perhaps the terrier varieties are too energetic and destructive for apartment living. The weekend is the time that these couples go out on excursions and take their pets with them for exercise.

Shell fish entree

Crunchy baked crays

A baked fish

Like all good things this delicious meal came to an end and we moved on. In a nearby shop I was delighted to find colorful mud boots and priced a pair.

Wet weather boots

These really weren’t designed for muddy garden work, at $80A a pair, but for dressing up on wet days in the city. I resisted the temptation to buy myself a pair.

Sea view

As we continued our drive we saw many safe anchorages like this one in sheltered bays.

Another sea view

In the distance, on the narrow strip of land is a golf course. Naturally the people who lived with such views could afford expensive homes.

A wealthy lifestyle

Another cove

Then it was time to cross over a hill to see revealed before us, Kowloon. Their were people undertaking Sunday road works in Kowloon, as there is much less traffic on the road at the weekend.

Kowloon revealed

Our destination was the historic Peninsula Hotel. Our goal was to take High Tea.

The Peninsula

My photos tell the story better than words.

Champagne and cake

We had to line up to get a table to eat tiny cucumber or salmon sandwiches and petit cakes, which we washed down with a bottle of champagne before ordering a pot of tea.

High ceilings

Above us a string quartet played popular melodies. We strolled up to this floor where all the big brand name products were discreetly display in a genteel manner. We could also buy tins or packets of the various Peninsula tea blends.

The quartet

This delightful evening brought to an end a great day of sightseeing in the company of two adult children. I asked to be dropped back to our hotel at 7.00pm but they went off for a few more hours of time together.

Das Helwig Haus B&B owned by Eberhard and Fay Helwig is situated at Glen Aplin, near Stanthorpe on the Granite Belt of southern Queensland, Australia.

This is a region noted for summer stone-fruit, autumn apples, winter  Christmas in July dinners and a spring Remembrance Field of red Flanders poppies.

Fay has published a book called Wildflowers, wilderness and wine.

It is available on the Amazon.com website.  http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002ACXQ0M/sr=8-1/qid=1244294755/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&qid=1244294755&sr=8-1&seller=

http://stores.lulu.com/strictlyliterary

http://books.google.co.uk/

Amazon.com website. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002ACXQ0M/sr=8-1/qid=1244294755/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&qid=1244294755&sr=8-1&seller=