(no subject)

My larder is very full and my stomach has some new bulges. Yesterday Donna and I made mustard pickles, and tomato sauce, and antipasto, and beans in tomato puree, and Branston pickles, and chummous, and beetroot dip, and tabouli, and tsatsiki, and spinach dip, and zucchini balls. We might have made other things. I am too tired to remember.

I am the proud possessor of two bottles of mustard pickle and one of tomato sauce and a *lot* of antipasto (one big bottle didn't seal properly so I get to eat it this week). For Women's History Month I had plans to give you a recipe fed to Marie-Antoinette (the menu is here, I believe http://freresgoncourt.free.fr/portef2001/JulesGourmet/2repasRoyaux.htm ) but none of you seem to want recipes anymore, so I won't. Instead I will let my computer think for itself for a little and eat a gourmet Mediterranean dinner. (did I say we got most of the fruit and vegies from the Farmer's Market early yesterday morning and that it was all super-fresh? and that we looked across at each other when the last bottle went into the Fowlers contraption late last night and asked "Are we quite mad?")

When I am over my culinary excess I am moving to reading excess. I have 4 books from the library, 2 review books and seven books borrowed from Donna. And lots of DVDs. Lots and lots, in fact. Maybe I will get some work done this week but honest, I am not certain I have time for inessentials.

Moment of gratuitous advertising.

To minimise interference with my normal intensely wise sayings (I have a good imagination, allow me full use of it) I am confining advertising to this one single post. Make sure you read every word. The only way to avoid me, after all, is to know what I am doing and where I will be.

The Australian Speculative Fiction Carnival is coming up very soon and Philologa informs me she feels neglected and in danger of fading from neglect. Please send entries to her philologa(at)gmail.com) as soon as soon as soon as. While it is OK for Philologa to feel neglected, since she is largely fictional - you don't want Deborah to feel neglected subsequently, which is what will happen if there are no entries this month. Mind you, Deborah might be fictional, too, which confuses things. Exception that - fictional or no - it would be a great loss if Deborah faded away. Either way, please send in any blogstuff related to Australian speculative fiction.

Next weekend is a book launch - the book Nicole Murphy has been editing, in fact. Anyone who can make Canberra on Saturday afternoon just ask and I will let you know where and when.

Sydney the Saturday after is Magic Casements, hours of entertainment and interesting panels for a mere $20. It is at the Writer's Centre in Balmain.

And after that, save your Easter for Conjure in Brisbane. And look at the pretty pictures for pre-conference activity: http://www.conjure.org.au/workshops.htm I might even bring my giant Winchester map/s if I can work out how to make them when I can't draw a ha'penny worth.

And Women's History Month is still on. Expect more posts. I have no idea what kind of posts, since no-one has expressed preferences.

All of this you probably knew, but it bore repeating.