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In a saucepan, put around a litre of milk. I say "around" because after the first couple of times, I did the time honoured cook's tradition of "bunging it in", which is to say, how much I wanted to use. Feel free to experiment with two litres.

Heat the milk to BLOOD TEMPERATURE. Now, this bit is really important. Yoghurt is a living collection of thingies (technical term), and you don't want to kill them by cooking them. So lukewarm, like milk for a baby's bottle, is best. I have often put in my finger to test because I couldn't be bothered using a thermometer. I know this goes to the contrary of the cleanliness advocated above, but unless you're Sewerage Sam, you shouldn't have too many problems.

When the milk has heated sufficiently, add two tablespoons of yoghurt starter culture, which you get by opening a container of commercial, NOT FRUIT OR FLAVOURED, yoghurt and getting a tablespoon and bung it in. If you use fruit or flavoured yoghurt, it won't have the bacterium you need. So there.

Stir in the starter culture. Just stir it in enough to let it know you have set up an entirely pleasant abode for it and the Missus to settle in and breed. You don't have to blend it thoroughly. It won't appreciate that.

Pour into the aforementioned thermos flask or other. Seal well, wrap firmly in towel to keep cold out and warmth in, wait 12 hours or so. Stir again and re-wrap if it's only half way there.

Beautiful yoghurt.

For something different, try reconstituting the milk with soy milk. Follow the same steps as for cow juice, and see how you go. It's a bit sweeter, from my point of view.

When ready, add your favourite fruit topping, or put it on your cereal. I used some stuff that had been sitting for a day or so more than usual as "Greek yoghurt", and it did a wonderful job blended with finely sliced mint, a couple of drops of tabasco sauce, a finely diced Lebanese cucumber and a little salt. Great counterpoint to a sweet meat dish, like the one I did last week with cranberry sauce, orange zest and orange juice.

Good news! We now have eleven more goslings since last week, and Mrs Compost has finally stopped laying, but one of our Mrs Chooks continues, even though she is surrounded by dead bodies. Yecch! Another Mrs Chook is sitting on imported fertile eggs and a few of her own.

Bess gave birth to nine piglets last night (Monday), but she must have eaten the runt, as there are only eight now. Alice and I were priveleged to be able to see a birth, and also to hold a couple of the newborns. Bess is nice and relaxed about it all, although she does seem a bit upset if any of the piglets wander off the sawdust laid down for them and into the main part of the yard.

Porgy, on the other hand, was stressing a bit, especially with the births, but has settled now.

I have seen the kittens, four of them, very much like their Mother. It is a pity that they have to go. They are so pretty, and their Mother has the most wonderful nature. C'est la guerre.

Our Lady Hillingdon rose is beautifully in flower. These pale yellow to deeper yellow, fragrant blooms are very hardy, and look good in bud or full-blown. Apparently the climber is even better, as it was developed after the bush tea.

Brian's birthday was on Saturday last, and I was able to give him six beautiful hand embroidered silk pictures from China, which I was blessed to buy for only $2 each at the local Salvation Army Op Shop. I took him "out" to dinner, we went to the local Botanic Gardens at Koroit and had a free barbecue, the sausages bought by me some hours earlier. Aaron watched on (too tired from milking, Aaron is Alice's oldest brother) as we played petanque, the daschies roamed around looking for butterflies to beat up (and not finding any, but sniffing just in case, with a great gleam in their eyes), and a good, cheap birthday was had by all. Brian loves barbecues. He had his family around him, and was very happy.

An article in The Standard, from May 31st this year (see, I do look after you Northerners occasionally) reports the New Zealand research had given a big "thumbs up" to poplar as an emergency stock feed, though being deciduous, this is probably not the best time of year to be telling you guys this.

To continue: "A trial at Massey University's Riverside Farm (doesn't that sound lovely?) demonstrated that ewes farmed under drought conditions and fed 1.5kg of poplar tree cuttings per day for seven weeks returned a margin of $13:36 per ewe more than ewes not fed poplars... Ms McWilliam is now investigation whether the ewes prefer Tangaio willow or Viennese poplar and whether the type of tree influences production. Each ewe is receiving 1.4kg of willow or poplar per day and about 0.7kg of pasture. Professor Barry says early indications are that the willow is slightly more palatable."

Examples of trees to grow for fodder are acacia (wattle), willow (sick animals will often eat this when they refuse all other feed), poplar, tagasaste (tree lucerne). Mirror bush (a New Zealander) the shiny-leafed large hedge shrub on many town roadsides is also relished.

From the home garden: grape vine leaves, honeysuckle, roses, pelargoniums, jasmine.

Double check, many are poisonous - manna and sugar gum, for example, contain prussic acid (hydrocyanic acid), a killer.