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I discovered it this morning in the pigeon aviary (can't call it a loft, it's on the ground). It had been mauled by something, presumably a rat. Or perhaps it hadn't wanted to leave the nest and Mama was desirous of laying more eggs and turfed the poor little thing out.

So I brought it to work, hoping that Leah's beloved, Chris, would take enough pity on it to adopt and rear it. No such joy. Chris is heading off to Adelaide tomorrow and, as such, can hardly succour a pigeon.

I'm hoping that now that it is over its initial shock, it will survive. I might end up putting it in another cage until it has its full feathers. Brian hauled me gently over the coals for bringing in animals to work. This one is the third. The other two have been placed successfully with Leah and Chris, an orphaned duckling and gosling respectively.

We have found a home, at last for the pigs, and Brian thinks he may have a home for the rest of the geese. Hallelujah! God be praised! Then on to serious packing.

Alice's school term ends today (Friday) so we will have to wangle places for her to visit on those days when Brian is working and so am I.

We're still looking for a residence supreme, and I have an inspection tomorrow for a place that is very modern, close to the School, the fitness centre and the gymnastics centre. I don't like the colour scheme of the outside too much, sandstone and deepest black, but I'm prepared to tolerate it. Brian likes it for the proximity, and he seems impressed with it generally.

There's very little happening at work at the moment, even when my bosses are both in. It's the pre-Christmas wind-down that is so very big here, as our Summer coincides with Christmas. Holidays for many. I have actually been asking those around me to give me work. Occasionally they have obliged, which is great.

The weather lately has been all-day mists with the slight intervention of rain every so often. Today we had our first major thunderstorm of Summer, and it is interesting to note those who are truly afraid of such things, and those who revel in it. The rest try to ignore the electricity flashing on and off. Apparently parts of Warrnambool had hailstones the size of marbles, which is very unusual. I love a good thunderstorm, it's such fun. And very good for the plants, too.

I went a bit mad the other night. We have recently had a chain store jewellery and giftware firm, Thomas the Jewellers, open amidst much controversy (they accidentally tore down an old pub to make way for their new store), and their prices have, for the most part, been stunningly discounted. I bought a fair quantity of sterling silver charms for Alice's bracelets at a 30% discount, but I was doing some thinking about these prices and so put on layby for us two Royal Doulton crockery sets that were originally $999 each and had been marked down to $399, and a canteen of Stanley Rogers cutlery down from $619 to $299. I know that seems wildly extravagant, but they will be wonderful heirlooms for Alice, and I don't think I'll ever see those prices again. I have until March next year to pay it all off, but they said that if I paid regularly, it would be alright to increase the time. How wonderful is that!

I thought you'd like the following:

Every second Wednesday just after the 10 am news, 666 ABC Canberra's mornings' presenter, Louise Maher, chats with Jackie French about the home and garden.
This week's strange object is a Chilacayote, pictured right.

This giant perennial climber dies down in the frost, but before that it clambers over all available trees, growing up to half an acre if allowed! The fruit are like massive, very heavy watermelons outside, and are formed in late autumn after yellow pumpkin like flowers. They can be eaten tiny, like zucchini, or left till the seeds form.

Use chunks of the fresh fruit with stir-fried veges, or in chilled fruit salad. Chilacayote doesn't taste of much, but the texture is firm and good, and it will borrow the flavours of anything it is cooked with. We eat some as zucchini, stir fried, but most we either feed to the chooks, give to friends, or grate and add to jams - about half chilcayote to other fruit. Great with plums, raspberries or apricot; not bad in chutney; also makes a good ginger and lime jam. In this case the chilacayote produces most of the bulk. Use any recipe for melon jam.

The vine will die down with frosts, but come back in late spring. By the second year it will need to be regularly hacked back or it will take over the suburb. It will also form roots where it touches the ground. However due to Canberra frosts, it is fairly safe to grow one without fear of Canberra being overcome with chilacayote.

Chilacayote and ginger marmalade

Take a kilo of chopped chilacayote. Add a kilo of sugar, 1 cup water, and the juice and zest of three lemons or limes and a dessert spoon of grated ginger or half that of powdered. Boil until it turns rich brown. Only add more water if needed.

Chilacayote and plum jam
2 kilos of chopped chilacayote
1 kilo plums
2 kilos sugar
water

Boil all ingredients. Test a little and when it sets in cold water, it is ready. Semi ripe sour apples may be substituted for the plums. Either makes a very good jam.

Kaffir Limes

Kaffir limes are mostly used for their fragrant leaves, a bit like bay leaves- they impart a rich lime fragrance to cooking or if bunged in a jar of salad dressing for use on fish or cold veg.

The fruit is knobbly and fragrant, and the peel is great grated in anything you'd used lemon or lime rind in. The juice is also good too, but there is very very little and it is resistant to being removed from the fruit, though a couple of seconds in a hot oven or microwave makes it much easier.

Kaffir limes are supposed to be very very tropical indeed. I was given one about seven years ago, and planted it a bit dubiously, but it has never taken any notice of the frost at all - if anything it's more cold resistant than the tahitian limes, which are slightly more cold resistant than the lemons.

Our kaffir lime is planted on a steep slope though, so frost drains away from it and it warms up quickly. So plant yours in the most frost protected spot you have. Ours also seems to be more drought hardy than other citrus, which may be because of its extraordinarily fragrant leaves- a high leaf oil content helps prevent moisture loss. But on the other hand, I may just have a hardy freak of a Kaffir Lime!

Kaffir limes are smallish trees, especially in cold areas- I doubt ours will grow over 2 metres, and it is a very very slow grower here. They aren't particularly attractive, but not ugly either - just green green and green. And they are also pretty thorny.

Using Kaffir Lime

Kaffir lime leaves can be dried, but usually aren't as they rot easily. They are best dried indoors, in a dark spot. Try leaving them on blotting, computer or brown paper (ie porous, not waxed) in the roof cavity, as long as it isn't inhabited by possums or rats. Or tie up as single branches and hang from the ceiling. The leaves should be green, not yellow when dried, with no brown or black patches. If they're yellow, throw them out, as the taste will be affected. Just break off the brown patches and throw them away before use.

Add kaffir limes leaves to chicken stock for a good warming soup. Add to laksas, curries, or shred young leaves very very finely in salads.

They are also good added to borscht, and a whole fish cooked on a bed of lime leaves is a delight, as are roast chooks. Also good slipped into cold drinks, or keep a jug of lime leaves and water in the fridge. Finely shredded young leaves are also good in stir fried dishes.

In the Earth Garden magazine of September-November, 2004AD, Rosalie McGregor of Hill End, New South Wales, writes;

"We were stumped when a young Australorp hen developed a severe limp as thought she was paralysed on one side. She seemed healthy otherwise - bright eyed with good appetite. She spent a lot of time in the old hay shed so I rigged up a sling to make it easier for her to move about. She refused to use it.

"Later when we were watching a television program about a travelling vet we saw a budgie with a similar problem. The vet said the bird had had a stroke and that a shot of vitamin B complex would fix him in about a week. We didn't want to inject the hen so we mixed some vitamin B liquid with molasses an seaweed meal and drenched her with a small syringe, repeating the dose for several days. She improved but did not fully recover, possibly because she had been lame for several months. Later when another hen developed the problem we treater her quickly and she recovered in days. We now add seaweed meal to the poultry mash and the problem has not recurred.'

She goes on to write of an egg-bound chook, and how the bird needed calcium. She supplied enough, but because the chook was timid, it wasn't out in the sunshine, it didn't get the vitamin D it needed to absorb the calcium for stronger shells.

Habits

Habits are wonderful things
that guide our lives
and rule our days

Inconspicuous at first
the challenge is getting them
to leave - like an unwanted guest
who has stayed overlong.

A good habit, however, is gold,
strengthening routines
reinforcing the miscellany of life

I have too few of those!

What I do have - in excess -
is a proliferation of excuses
prancing around eating up my time
and, annoyingly, they resist
many attempts to dislodge.

A habit should be discardable
an old sock with worn-out toes and heel
beyond repair
thrown out before the smell contaminates

Ah! If only it were that easy!