IN Citrus

 
Citrus plants seem to generate more questions than any other when it comes to home gardening. So Sabrina Hahn squeezes every last little bit of information into a new book to help.

“People take gardening a bit too seriously,” says Sabrina Hahn, a woman who has made it her life. “It’s really a lot of experimenting, having a go at stuff and learning as you go. If you’re too serious you don’t experiment. So this book gives people access to the knowledge to help them do that.”

The book she is talking about is Sabrina’s Juicy Little Book of Citrus, a pocket-sized but zesty bible for anyone who wants to grow healthy citrus in the garden. Packed with information it covers everything from propagation, pruning and care to pests and diseases. The book is handy enough to put in your pocket and take along next time you’re thinking of buying a citrus tree thanks to the section describing the different kinds of citrus for the home gardener, including a section on Australian bush tucker and native limes.

“I think there’s a good balance of technical information, fun facts about gardening and some of that mother’s wisdom.” The obsessive gardener doesn’t forget a dash of humour either, vital when you’re dealing with citrus.

Sabrina – who you’ve probably heard talking gardening on ABC Radio – says the only thing which should be overwhelming in your garden is its beauty. Equally, she considers them a constant work in progress as you learn, plant and prune. She says you don’t need to be the best gardener, just passionate about it.

Lime and lemon trees, in pots and in the ground, are a big feature of this Perth gardener’s own backyard alongside a decent vegetable garden. Sabrina is part of a wider movement of people choosing to grow more of their own produce and eat with the seasons.

“Seasonal cooking has been popular in Europe for a long time, particularly in France and we have the opportunity to do that here with excellent-tasting produce.

“I think it’s a combination of people wanting to be more self-sufficient as well as being concerned about food’s freshness and what’s being sprayed on it. They’re also more aware of the flavours of fresh food and looking at things and saying ‘I should be able to grow that in my own garden’.”

If it’s citrus, you’ve got a perfect guide in Sabrina’s book.

“We lost the last generation of gardeners and many small veg shops with the rise of the big supermarkets. With that we lost a lot of knowledge of how to grow your own food. My grandmother and mother were avid gardeners and I grew up with two generations growing their own food. Now it’s coming back around again and people are planting everything from small edible gardens and growing a citrus tree or two to full-blown fruit, veg and herb gardens.”

Sabrina’s Juicy Little Book of Citrus ($19.99) is published in October through Fremantle Press and available at all good bookstores.

IN Derby

They’re fast, sexy and hell on wheels. Meet the women of the Perth Roller Derby League.

The women of the Perth Roller Derby League like to skate fast and make every lap count. But it seems that what they like to do even more is have fun.

While popular in the 1940’s roller derby began a modern revival in the early 2000’s as a women’s amateur event. There are now more than 1200 amateur leagues around the world and the roller sport is now under consideration for the 2020 Olympics.

Roller derby gals race on quad roller skates and Perth’s two home teams are The Bloody Sundaes and Mistresses of Mayhem. In keeping with the aesthetic of the sport, skaters choose names and outfits which are an eclectic and colourful mix of punk, rockabilly, third-wave feminism and usually take their skater names from word play, sexual puns or allusions to pop culture. They can range from Princess Lay-Ya Flat to Drag’n SlayHer, Night of the Rolling Dead and Perth’s own Bronte Sore Ass.

Flat track women’s roller derby is run on an oval track with two teams of 14, five of whom are on the track at any one time. Four are blockers and one is a jammer. It’s the jammer’s job to score the points by lapping the other team, while the blockers keep the other team away from her while continuously moving around the track. This means you’re playing offense and defence at the same time while trying to support your jammer to score a point and preventing the opposing jammer from scoring.

The women of Perth Roller Derby (PRD) range in age from 18 to 45 and are everything from teachers, scientists and tattoo artists to journalists, tertiary students and mums. PRD is a not-for-profit organisation which runs the derby bouts and co-ordinates travelling teams to play in other states.

They started in 2008 after a group of local women saw the documentary Hell on Wheels about the evolution of roller derby and wanted to start their own local league.

Lisel “Babeonic Plague” Avey is a lawyer and has been involved in Perth Roller Derby for the last three years. Never having been involved in organised group sport before, she couldn’t even skate when she started.

“It was a unique sport and looked like so much fun,” says Lisel, 26. “It took me about six months to become a confident skater and then I started adding in more of the contact stuff.”

Roller Derby isn’t a free for all when it comes to pushing and shoving. There are numerous rules about how you can connect to another skater but equally enough ways – like a hip or shoulder check – to get them out of the way.

The game is very fast-paced with a lot of stuff happening at one time. A lot of the game is about being able to take a hit, pick yourself up and push through when it gets tough. That determination is a really big thing, plus it’s meant to be fun as well.

Lisel says one of the attractions of the sport is playing something which is fast, highly athletic, allows for physical contact as well as the high fun quotient. The strategic and mental aspect of the game also appeals to her as the play is always changing and you have to think fast on your feet, at speed.

“You have to strategise and the team work is important. You play against your friends on the other team but you come up against them in a fun atmosphere.”

If you prefer your athletes on wheels than on a footy field, Perth’s two teams face off for the 2012 Grand Final on September 29 at the Herb Graham Recreation Centre on Chesterfield Road in Mirrabooka from 7pm.

For more information and ticketing, go to  www.perthrollerderby.com.au

IN San Francisco

 Words from the cutting edge.

Realmark’s Residential Agency Director Gayle Adams has just returned from San Francisco where she was representing Realmark, one of just two agencies from Australia to attend the acclaimed Inman Conference: Real Estate Connect.

This biannual conference is at the forefront of real estate marketing and technology and brings together the world’s top thinkers and leaders in this area.

So, we asked Gayle to list her main takeaways from the experience of mixing with the world’s best thought leaders, geeks and marketers in real estate today:

1.The power of the relationship with the consumer is KEY
2.We must earn trust through building a professional relationship and not one based on kinship or false rapport
3.Nurture trust by assisting consumers to be well informed on market activity
4.To initiate relationships online with consumers, however it’s most important to develop the relationship by taking it into the offline world as well
5.Print media still has a very important role to play in real estate awareness and marketing
6.The power of social media is important. There is much that can be achieved building or initiating relationships through facebook, twitter, Linked In and blogging
7.BUT … it’s not just conversation for the sake of it. It needs to be targeted, specific and tailored
8.The emergence of mobile mediums for accessing technology: cue the mobile video house inspection

It was both invigorating and fascinating to mix with and listen to the global thought leaders in real estate marketing and technology in San Francisco recently, Gayle told us.

“It’s exciting to hear of the possibilities of constantly evolving technology and social media and marketing tools and at the same time realise, that we here at Realmark in Perth are really keeping pace with these developments.”

All of this evolution places the real estate consumer in an advantageous position provided they utilise a real estate agency that is fully engaged in these evolving mediums of marketing and communication.

No longer are the sellers or investors best interests going to be served by the local corner shop agency or the local personality realtor, otherwise they risk underselling or under renting their property.

At Realmark, we place a great deal of emphasis and energy on a multi-medium- multi-layered marketing approach that provides property sellers, buyers and lessors with a huge advantage in the very competitive and busy marketplace.