Mandy Magro
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Bestselling Australian Author
'Mandy writes great stories…sexy and uniquely Australian!'
ADAM BRAND - AUSTRALIAN COUNTRY MUSIC ARTIST
My Blog
Blog
Buy Australian Made and Owned
| Posted on 23 August, 2011 at 0:40 |
comments (1610)
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G’day Hope you have all had a fantastic couple of weeks. I have been busy editing my second novel, Jacaranda, and continuing on with writing my third, Melaleuca. Life is never boring around here! I love it! :)  This week I would really like to touch base on a topic that is very close to my heart, buying Australian owned and made products. Being a farmer it is especially sad when I look at canned or frozen products and the contents are not from our gloriously fertile land. What is the government thinking?! And more so, what are the supermarkets thinking?! When a product is foreign owned then every dollar we spend goes back to that country. However, when we support Australian owned products we are supporting all the Australian jobs that go with that company – from manufacturing, marketing, administration, financials, and distribution – the list goes on. That's a lot of jobs and a lot of people! Don’t you think?!  Don’t be fooled by the labels that state the product is “Made in Australia”, although this is a good start the company may still be foreign owned. If every Australians changed their spending habits – very slightly – and spent just $40 a week on wholly owned Australian companies instead of wholly owned foreign companies then we could have a significant impact on the Australia Balance of Trade. This increase in local demand will increase productivity and reduce demand on imports. How great is that? It’s like the butterfly effect.  I am very proud of our country and proud of the food and products we are able to produce here. So come on all my fellow Aussies, let us cheer loudly for the companies and farmers that keep it here, in our pockets. Lets all support them by taking a few seconds in the supermarkets to read the labels and choose products made and owned by Australians. I reckon they all deserve a big pat on the back! Thought for this week “My interest is in the future because we are going to spend the rest of our lives there.” Until next week, keep smiling and dreaming Mandy :) |
Why I love the Aussie outback!
| Posted on 12 April, 2011 at 21:23 |
comments (1148)
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G'day! Winter is on the way and up here in North Queensland it is a glorious time of the year! So pull out the jumpers,dust off the soup cookbook and find yourself a cosy warm place to read, why not, you deserve it! Today I would like to explain to you why I love the country with all my heat and soul, so here goes. :-)  The sun rises magnificently from behind the lush mountain tops, sending the sky gorgeous hues of gold, orange and red. The wide open spaces sprawl out before me, the sunlight dancing across the ground as if in celebration of the new day. The bellow of a bull travels along with the gentle morning breeze, a noise I love to hear. A flock of red tailed black cockatoos fly noisily overhead and as I gaze up in awe of them a wedge tail eagle catches my attention as it circles effortlessly in the expanse of the brilliant blue sky. I take a sip from my pannikin of Bushells tea, smiling as a kangaroo goes bounding through my backyard with its Joey in toe, vanishing behind the glorious golden wattles trees that line my back fence.  Hank, my bantam cross rooster crows his good morning to the world, announcing his dominance of the hens for yet another day. I think he suffers a little with small rooster syndrome, he thinks he is bigger than what he is! Off in the distance I can hear my hubby out in the tractor, tending to our upcoming harvest of tropical fruits. I love this time of the day as I watch the world come alive; it leaves me breathless with wonderment at just how lucky I am to be living in such a unique and peaceful landscape.  After a breakfast of vegemite on toast or fresh eggs from my chickens I head off into the Dimbulah township with my little girl, Chloe, to check the post box (there is no post man out here in the sticks as it would take him a week to do a daily mail run!), run some errands and have a good old catch up with mates that are in town doing the same thing. Some of them I haven’t seen for weeks and they are my neighbours! Mind you, they do live quite a few kilometres down the road. Then it is back home to write, read or tend to the garden. The day floats by as I do the daily tasks of being a mum, cooking, cleaning and farm jobs. If we are eating beef for dinner it is always from our own supply of cattle and I always try to include something from our veggie patch.  In the late afternoon, when it has cooled down, it is out to the backyard to play with the dogs and watch as the sun begins to set on the horizon. I stare peacefully at the neighbour’s horses as they swish their tails, warding off the flies, their heads down as they chew on grass, their coats glimmering in the fading sunlight. Once again I cannot help but gaze at the vastness which is my backyard. It is an amazing place to be living and I feel so very blessed to be here. As the sun slips away and night time wraps its comforting cloak of darkness around us the sky becomes a dazzling show as millions of stars take their rightful place. I take a deep satisfied breath, letting it escape slowly; the outback is a truly magical and enchanting place, it is my home, my obsession and my inspiration to write. THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK Anything worth doing is worth doing slowly. Only 6 1/2 weeks to go and Rosalee Station will hit the shelves. What an exciting thought! Until next week keep smiling and dreaming! Mandy :-) |
Wild and wonderful fruits.
| Posted on 15 February, 2011 at 19:33 |
comments (573)
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G'day! Hope you have all had a wonderful week. There has been such an amazing response to my website and I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you lovely people out there who have helped me out by spreading the word about Rosalee Station's imminent arrival. I have really enjoyed reading all the inspiring emails from people who are excited to get their hands on a copy of Rosalee Station in May.....good on yas!  In the tropics I am lucky enough to be able to grow an abundant amount of fruit and vegetables in the gardens which surround our corrugated iron house. I wanted to share one very unique and special fruit with you this week, the mighty Monstera Deliciosa...sounds like something out of a horror film, doesn't it? But trust me, it is divine! The fruit may be ripened by cutting it when the first scales begin to lift up and it begins to exude a pungent odour (gotta look past this one!) I then wrap it in a paper bag and set aside until the scales begin popping off. The scales are then brushed off or fall away to reveal the edible flesh underneath. The flesh, which is similar in texture to a pineapple, can then be cut away from the core and devoured. It has a fruity taste similar to jackfruit and pineapple. Absolutely addictive once you start eating it but the thing is, you have to be patient, and try hard not scoff the whole thing in a day. If you do, you will have little tiny prickles in your tongue for a week. The prickles only disappear once the fruit drops off the core…someone should invent a chocolate like this! or maybe not!So for now, I must learn patience, and wait until the delicious fruit decides it is ready to be eaten. Thought for this week is from the funny man himself, Billy Connolly. "Who discovered we could get milk from cows to drink ourselves; and what did he think he was doing at the time?" Keep smiling and dreaming Mandy ;-) |
A Day on the Farm
| Posted on 9 February, 2011 at 23:13 |
comments (769)
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Welcome everyone! :-) Today is my very first blog. Yeah! I have just won the battle of developing my very own website, by myself!, and I must say I am quite chuffed at how well it turned out. There were a few moments where I wanted to bang my head against the screen for lack of computer knowledge but somehow I waided through the unkown and emerged a computer nerd, well nearly! It's smack bang in the middle of picking season for us here on the farm and I have put two photos on this blog. One of my brother-in-law in the back of the farm truck with all the crates of longans. This fruit will then be driven to my Dad's farm in Mareeba to be packed and shipped off down south for the fruit markets. This is a day at the office in the outback. The other is of our Longan trees. A few more months and this will all be picked. I will include a weekly thought when I do my blogs. This week's is "Don't squat with spurs on!" Hope you are all well and enjoying your day to the full Keep smiling and dreaming Mandy   |