Rolling in Clover

Last weekend my daughter and two friends, slightly hungover from the night before, wanted eggs Benedict for 'breakfast'. I know I could have made this for them myself and had they wanted breakfast at 9am rather than 11am I might have considered doing so but as it was I suggested they go out to one of the local cafes. Rather than trust to chance my daughter rang ahead to make sure that what they wanted was on the menu but no one answered the call.  While they were pondering what to do next our phone rang and it was the proprietor of the cafe ringing back returning our call.
Me: 'Oh, is that Clover?'
Clover: 'Yes. I just had a missed call from this number.'
Me: 'Yes that was my daughter wanting to know if you have eggs Benedict on the menu.'
Clover: 'Um no but I could do them. How many do you want?'
Me: 'That would be fabulous. There's three of them.'
Clover: 'Fine. I'll get the hollandaise started now and I'll reserve a table for them.'
Me: 'That's wonderful. Thank you so much. They're just about on their way so they'll see you in about five minutes.'
Now that is what I call service!!
 Although we live in an inner city suburb, surrounded by some very busy thoroughfares we also have a small, local 'village' shopping area with  a couple of independent supermarkets,  two bread shops, a butcher cum deli, the post office, two chemists, a good book shop, two hardware stores, an independent plant nursery and several cafes and restaurants all within a short stroll from the front door.  All these places depend on the patronage of the local community and reciprocate by offering friendly, personal service which usually comes with a smile and a chat and the willingness to listen to customers and respond to their needs.
I do most of my weekly shopping locally. I travel a bit further afield for fruit and vegetables but even then only to the green grocer in the next suburb.
But Woolworths have their eye on this best of all possible worlds and plan to build a supermarket at the end of our street. Not in the local shopping strip but only three blocks away. Why? Because they can I suppose. Do we need a Woolworths supermarket? No we don't. Do we want a Woolworths supermarket within easy walking distance? No we don't. Can we stop it happening? Worth a try but Buckley might have as much chance.
And by the way the verdict was that the eggs were delicious!

Clover Cafe
78 Booth Street
Annandale
0433 258 252

Month in Review - September 2010




Jar of Apricots, Jean Simeon Chardin (1758)
oil on canvas, 57.2x50.8 cm
Art Gallery of Ontario

 
I have spent most of the month busy pretending to be an anthropologist. Reading, reading and more reading with a bit of eating and gardening thrown in.
It is a long time since I have grown anything from scratch. Our last two gardens were already well established when we inherited them and all we had to do was make sure nothing died. Growing vegetables is much more exciting. I prowl the garden several times a day and now the weather is warmer you can actually see things growing by the hour. My first attempt at tomatillo seedlings was a disaster because I tried to start them too soon. The seeds I planted out two weekends ago have gone berserk. I now have a forest of little green plants growing stronger everyday. And there are beans on the broad beans. Did you know that the pods grow upwards? During the month I've planted eggplants. If they all survive, and at the moment it seems that they will, we will have nine bushes which means we should have enough fruit to set up our own stall at the markets. And there are zucchini - only six plants this time. I am so excited about harvesting my own vegetables.Even though the choice is a bit limited at the moment it is such a joy to wander out at dinner time and come back with fresh lettuce and 'squeaking' spinach leaves.
This month we have also planted a lemon/lime (Eureka lemon grafted with a Tahitian lime) and a passionfruit vine - at the moment just a stick with half a dozen leaves but we hope that it will eventually sprawl over the outside loo.
Over the years I have made a collection of bromeliads and orchids of one sort or another and most of them are in flower at the moment. At the bottom of the garden we also have an old cottage rose - one I planted twenty years ago - which I have nurtured and nursed back to health after many years of neglect and that too has flowers. So with the roses and the orchids and the borage and the flowers on the beans the garden looks very festive.
The bromeliads are grouped around another new addition - the frog pond. The other week I enlisted a friend to help me drag home one of those blue plastic shell sand pits which was discarded on the footpath. Then I enlisted my son to dig out and level a shallow depression to sit it in. We filled it with water from the tank, organised some duck weed, an aquatic plant or two and some tiny little fish. Now all we need are the frogs. Despite the fact that we live in the thick of the inner city suburbs in a row of narrow terraces there are frogs in the neighbourhood because last summer we heard them calling every night. Surely they won't be able to resist our luxurious accommodation?