Maretha at Fauna Park Tales

Series Notes #6 – The Impetuous Cook – Illustrating Book Four

One needs to take a break from anything to do with writing and sometimes, illustrating. Last week I was  busier than usual – singing for my supper – uploading data for my youngest daughter, who has an online hamper business. While doing so, I was constantly reminded of good food, snacks and cakes for special occasions, remembering a time  in South Africa, when we occasionally entertained my husband’s colleagues. One of them always referred to me as “Super  Cook”. I’ve not really lived up to that title lately, but seeing all the special goodies from Umbria – the region in Italy where my family lives and where the devastating earthquake occurred in August – I decided to do something to improve my former “Super Cook” status; despite my brain’s permafrost-cooking mode, unpacked baking utensils and recipe books. This then is what resulted.

CHEESE BREAD IN A RING

INGREDIENTS

  • Two-and-a-half cups of flour
  • Three teaspoons of baking powder
  • A pinch of salt
  • 250g butter, or margarine
  • 250ml skimmed milk
  • Two-and-a-half cups of grated cheddar cheese
  • Two eggs
  • Two dessertspoons sugar*

*I don’t advocate the use of sugar in savoury dishes,  but I wanted my grandchildren to eat the cheese bread with their soup, rather than reject it summarily.

METHOD

  • Cream butter, sugar, eggs;
  • Sieve dry ingredients over this mixture and stir everything together, adding milk and finally the grated cheddar cheese;
  • Bake at 180-190 degrees Celsius for 40 minutes;
  • Prick to check if baked through, remove and leave to cool for a few minutes, turn over on a rack.

After all that unusual activity, I was exhausted, but strangely enough, ready to tackle painting an abandoned silver mine  – an important illustration, because at this spot, villains and heroes visit during the course of their Kalughari *trails. The only permanent resident there is a solitary, nosy eagle owl. So, just painting inanimate things and trying to make it interesting stumped me somewhat, but after the cake-baking episode, I felt more up to the task.

 Faunalang* – the bush creatures’ peculiar language – for a semi-desert in “Fauna Park Tales” series.

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This illustration comes from “An African Adventure: Trails and Trials” – Book 4 in the “Fauna Park Tales” series, due for release in April 2017.

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Published by Maretha at Fauna Park Tales

Maretha is a South African Italian, born in a small town called Montagu. She grew up in nearby Worcester in the Western Cape – a town reminiscent of living in Switzerland among the snow-capped mountains. Worcester had a small library. Young Maretha’s visits were limited to three times a week, because the librarian told her, “You spend too much time with your nose in a book and neglect your school work.” Nothing much has changed, because she's still a confirmed bookworm who constantly strives to raise more bookworms who enjoy reading, not just as a pleasant past-time, but as an excellent tool to be used when grown-up. Before immigrating to the UK to settle in Lancashire, Maretha worked as a librarian in a private school in Botswana, where one of her tasks was to encourage children to enjoy reading. That was a labour of love for this bookworm, providing valuable help in carving her own career as a children's author/illustrator. It brought her face to face with the literary industry’s toughest critics – children and preteens. She saw that many students also enjoyed reading about birds and animals, their care, habitats and general well-being, especially when a few added catchy rhymes here and there made reading sessions interesting and alive. In 2012 her job was localised and as things often happen, this unforeseen occurrence led to a new chapter in her life. To remain motivated, she wrote down everything she could remember about her family's pets – their little habits and characteristics. For example, the character of the working-dog hero in Fauna Park Tales is based on the different traits of every single dog her family ever owned. Researching habits, habitats and interesting titbits about martial eagles and eagle owls, as well as many smaller birds such as crimson-breasted shrikes and hoopoes,made it easier to illustrate them and tell a believable story. Her illustrations appear throughout Fauna Park Tales. Maretha Botha admits to being a chocoholic and unreformed coffee addict, a keen gardener and bird watcher, who likes to walk on the moors where the stiff breeze coming in from the sea, quickly clears her head, making way for more inspiration.

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