Celebrating with ghosts

“Were you scared?”

That’s the first thing people asked me when I told them where my husband and I spent our wedding anniversary night last week. (Twenty-seven years!)

At the last minute, we booked to stay the night at the hotel on the site of the old Quarantine Station North Head near Manly in Sydney. It’s a magnificent setting, right on the harbour in the middle of a National Park.

What was once a Quarantine Station is now a quirky, lovely hotel in Sydney

 The Quarantine Station was established in the 1830s to prevent diseases such as typhus, plague and smallpox from reaching the main settlement of Sydney. Immigrant ships were stopped and passengers kept in strict quarantine in what, in effect, was a prison. The idyllic setting would have been cold comfort to the internees, many of whom never left there as they died from the disease they had contracted on the long journey from the Northern Hemisphere.

Fabulous views from the old Quarantine Station - the Manly ferries
pass each other on their way between Sydney and Manly 

Over the years the Quarantine Station became like a town in itself—divided into first, second and third class accommodation to reflect the status of the ship’s passengers. It operated right up until the 1980s.

There are three cemeteries on the grounds. The buildings are reputed to be haunted by the ghosts of the poor souls who never left there to start their new lives in Sydney. Ghost tours have operated there for years.

Victorian splendour in the former First Class Passengers lounge - now a guest lounge

So were we scared? Not at all. The place has a sad history but is a beautiful part of Sydney’s heritage. The Q Station Hotel has taken over the historic buildings and everything has been done within strict heritage guidelines. Quirky and interesting it was a fabulous place to stay.

You don’t have to stay at the hotel to visit as it’s all part of a National Park. I highly recommend it to anyone visiting Sydney. You can get there by road or by ferry.

In my March release Harlequin Romance Crown Prince’s Chosen Bride, Gemma and Tristan approach the area by boat and swim on the adjoining beach. It really is a gorgeous part of Sydney.

Have you ever stayed or visited anywhere with a creepy history? Or felt something scary in a historical place? Or like me, didn’t sense a thing! Please comment—I’d love to hear about it!

Talking about tomatoes - Kandy Shepherd

When I was editor of a gardening magazine I found everyone wanted to talk to me about their tomatoes.  In summer, they become almost a national obsession with gardeners.

There’s no doubt vine-ripened, freshly picked tomatoes taste fantastic. And in most places Down Under they’re easy to grow. In our part of the country there’s a local rule that decrees no planting out before Melbourne Cup Day (first Tuesday of November) because of the danger of late frost. But apart from that it’s just plant them, give them fertilizer (in our case courtesy of our hens and horses), water them and wait for tomatoes. Oh, and protect them from hungry birds.

I'd be happy to share with the local bird-life
but they'd scoff the lot if I didn't net my tomatoes!

But for the last three years our crops have been useless: too much rain, not enough rain, whatever the reason the result has been the same—no tomatoes.

That’s why we’re loving the bumper crops this year. The tomatoes have been so abundant we’ve had to look at ways not to waste them. I’ve recently made passata—fresh tomato sauce—and just yesterday tried making semi-dried tomatoes.

Best Romas I've every grown!

I picked the Roma tomatoes—egg shaped, not as juicy as other varieties. 

Roma's ready to go!

Then I cut them in half, sprinkled with salt, olive oil and thyme from the garden, and cooked them in a slow oven for about three hours until they were crisp around the edges but still soft in the middle. 

They don't look very pretty but the semi-dried tomatoes taste wonderful! 

Packed in oil and kept in the fridge they’ll keep for about a month—though I doubt they’ll last that long at our house!

These will be great in sandwiches, salads, pasta and pizza!

There’s a certain satisfaction in preserving crops from our garden. I’ve made pesto from the basil as well as plum jam this year  (for some reason none of our other fruit trees produced anything, unseasonal weather patterns I suspect.)

 

But I think of our forebears and am so thankful we don’t have to rely on my labour to keep us in fruit and vegetables throughout the year. Harvest time is the hottest time of the year and preserving in a sweltering kitchen isn’t something I’d want to do as anything other than an occasional hobby!

Of course my husband, while enjoying the fruits of my labour, reminds me that with a looming deadline, I should be working on my novel. And that all this tomato preserving is just another form of procrastination!

My next Harlequin Romance Crown Prince’s Chosen Bride is out on March 1. The heroine is a chef turned party planner—and she doesn’t make tomato sauce or plum jam in the story though she does make a wicked white chocolate mud cake…

Do you grow vegetables and/or make preserves or are you quite happy to buy them? Any successes or disasters to recount? I’d love to read your comments!

Rainy Days Binge - Kandy Shepherd

Rainy Day Binge

Yesterday, January 26, was Australia Day and I really wanted to go to the beach. There are many wonderful things about living in Australia, and I count our beaches among them.

However in my part of Down Under, summer has been erratic to say the least—sweltering days followed by torrential rain (hurray, dampening the bushfires!) followed by hot, sticky weather then more drizzly weather, then more violent storms.

Australia Day dawned bright and sunny and perfect. My husband and I had decided to spend the day together and go for lunch at a wonderful beachside café and then a swim at a Sydney beach.

This is what we found as we walked down to the sand.

Rough seas made the water too dangerous for swimming

And another sign...

These nasty marine stingers were everywhere - you couldn't even walk safely on the sand without encountering them

So no swimming. The week before at another beach we’d been stymied by excess seaweed brought in by storms and huge seas.

Who wants to swim with so much seaweed!

 I worked all the way through Christmas and New Year to meet a book deadline. When I’m writing I never watch television, as there’s simply no time. So I decided the erratic summer weather with all the storms called for some binge TV watching.

I recently subscribed to an Australian streaming service. First up use was the Christmas special of Sherlock, “The Abominable Bride” which I loved.

Sherlock, with Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, is an addiction in this family, we have all the series on DVD. On our visit to London last year, when I was meeting with my Harlequin Mills & Boon editors, my husband was making a pilgrimage to Speedy’s café which is important in the series. Then he went to the Sherlock Holmes museum at 221 Baker Street. One of the things I enjoy about the modern day Sherlock Holmes is the way they adapt the original Arthur Conan Doyle books.

I’m a big Benedict Cumberbatch fan so then caught up with The Imitation Game (I don’t get to see many movies at deadline times either) which was incredibly good. Now I want to read the book on which the movie was made.

It wasn’t until the Golden Globe nominations that I realised Mozart in the Jungle was not about bringing classical music to tribes-people in the Amazon or Africa but about the lives and loves of classical musicians in the urban jungle of New York.

One episode and I was totally hooked and watched the entire two series. It’s full of romance and drama and of course the music is wonderful. I was so entranced by the series, I downloaded the book upon which it is based to discover it was nothing like the show.

I’ve just discovered British crime drama Vera and am loving the gritty, superbly acted stories about a middle aged, grumpy female detective chief inspector played by Brenda Blethyn. Her offsider Joe is played by the very handsome David Leon (definitely romance novel hero inspiration!) The series is based on novels by author Ann Cleeves. Of course now I’ve ordered the first book in the series and hoping to have discovered a new author.

It seems it’s easier to get a TV series based on a crime novel than on a

romance novel. The notable exceptions being Highlander and Poldark both of which I adore.

What about you? Do you have a favourite TV show based on a book—or vice versa? Any surprises or disappointments? Any to recommend?

Leave a comment to be put in the draw for an advance copy of my March 2016 release from Harlequin Romance Crown Prince’s Chosen Bride.