Throughout December we are celebrating blokes @ your library. Are you male? Are you a member of Central West Libraries? Then our December promotion is just for you - please write your name and phone number on a ticket at the front desk at any of our Library branches to go in the draw to win a year's subscription to a family friendly bloke's magazine. Good Luck!
The Classics Book Club have discovered Bronte and Austen have the weather in common. I seem to recall not too long ago reading about the weather as a vehicle for the plot in Austen's works. Now members of The Classics Book Club are discovering the Brontes also used the weather and astronomical occurrences to serve the plot and mood of their novels. The Classics Book Club groups meet in Orange at 12.30pm on Thursday 16 October to discuss Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte and from 5.30pm to talk about Shirley by Charlotte Bronte. The next Cowra meeting will be held on Tuesday 30 September from 12.30pm to 1.30pm to discuss Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte and the Blayney group meets on Tuesday 21 October from 11am to 12noon to also talk about Wuthering Heights. For more information about the Classics Book Club contact your branch or download a form from the Reading and Writing page on the CWL website.
Calling book lovers and bargain hunters. Come into Orange City Library during opening hours for our Spring Book Sale and pick out a bargain book or two. There is everything from self-help to nursing, poetry, study guides, children's, fiction and non-fiction. Books are on sale for 50 cents with some art books marked at $5. Come in and check out the sale from Monday 1 September. Don't miss these bargains.
Enjoy a BBQ on Tuesday 24 June from 11am – 2pm at the Art Gallery Forecourt, in front of Orange City Library, Byng Street, Orange. Come along and enjoy the sausage sizzle to mark Drug Action Week and drug info @ your library. Stay for the guest speaker Professor Sandra Jones, Director of the Centre for Health Behaviour and Communication Research at 2pm to 3.30pm talking about alcohol advertising and all the issues. Don't wait for the politicians to decide, hear from an expert and make up your own mind. Learn more about drug info @ your library: up to date information on alcohol and drugs, easy to read, accurate, in English and other languages, online and at your public library. There is also a quiz to try and be in the running for a prize. Drug info is a partnership between NSW Health and the State Library of NSW. Go to the website: www.druginfo.sl.nsw.gov.au.
Be entertained. Central West Libraries is proud to present a true blue Aussie performance by entertainer Geoffrey Graham. Titled As the Crow Flies, Geoffrey performs a celebration of larrikins, legends and fair dinkum entertainment combining music, comedy and verse. It is a salute to our identity and heritage. He will be appearing at Forbes Library on Thursday 12 June at 10.30am, and Orange City Library on Thursday 12 June at 2pm. Please contact the respective libraries to book your place: Forbes on 6852 1463 or Orange on 6393 8132. Everyone is welcome to attend, it is an event for all ages and free. Geoffrey even takes requests!
April is Sensational Seniors @ your library month and the ideal time to celebrate the young at heart. Cowra Library presents the free Live Life Photography Project - an exhibition of photographic works that tell the stories of seniors living in the Cowra community from Monday 7 - 13 April at Cowra Library, 77 Darling Street, Cowra. Orange City Library will also be hosting a Lively Minds Trivia Afternoon which includes prizes and afternoon tea on Wednesday 9 April from 2pm to 4pm. Bookings are essential so please call the Library on 6393 8132 to ensure your place. As the Seniors Week slogan says Live Life!
A math whiz figured out how much energy and $$$ might be saved if Google was an all-black page. Blackle folks explain how it works. Worth a try?
Have you thought you should be doing more to save the environment but have been unsure where to start? Why not join us on Thursday 31 May for Orange City Library's Worm Farm Workshop and tour of the Recovery Centre?
The gorgeous Sue Clark from Netwaste will conduct the workshop at the Library between 1.30pm-2.30pm before taking you on a tour of the Recovery Centre from 2.45pm - 4pm. This program is for adults and numbers on the tour are limited to 19. Transport will be provided to and from the Recovery Centre.
Bookings are essential so please leave your name at the Library desk or call 63938132.
"Food @ your library" still has several weeks to run and it's perfect timing with the Annual FOOD Festival being launched in Orange tonight. The opening will be held in the South Court adjacent to the Orange City Library Building from 5.30pm and will take the form of a night market. If you're in town take the time to drop on down.
The Orange City Librarian "Our Lizzie" is a renowned cook and we persuaded her to share this easy recipe for Banana and Walnut Loaf, achievable now that the price of bananas has finally gone down.
Banana and Walnut Loaf
150g sugar 60g butter 3 eggs 3 bananas mashed 240g self-raising flour 180g walnuts small pinch salt
Preheat the oven to 180 and grease a 22cm loaf tin. In a mixing bowl cream the sugar and butter, add the eggs and beat well then beat in the mashed bananas. Sift the flour and salt into the mixture and beat until incorporated. Stir in the walnuts. Pour the mixture into the loaf tin and bake for 1 hour or until cooked. Turn out of the tin onto a wire cooling rack and allow to cool before slicing.
Lizzie says delicious warmed in slices spread with butter and served for breakfast.
Continuing on our food @ your library theme here's our Library Manager Jan Richards' recipe for Smoked Trout Tart. Elisabeth Edwards and Yolanda Torrisi first published it in "Flavours of the Four Seasons". If you've been reading our Blog you'll know that Lis's latest book was launched last Friday, clever lady.
Smoked Trout Tart Serves 4
Pastry 1 1/2 cups plain flour 1/2 teaspoon salt 50g cultured butter, cubed 1/8 to 1/4 cup iced water
Filling 30g butter 1 teaspoon olive oil 2 leeks 1 onion 1/2smoked trout, all skin and bones removed 2 eggs 300ml mixture cream and milk pinch salt 1/4teaspoon pepper 2 tablespoons herbs, parsley, dill, chervil, chives alone or combination
To make the pastry, place the flour and salt in a food processor, Add the butter and process for about 10 seconds. Add iced water, drop by drop, through the feed tube with the machine running until the dough comes together without being wet. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured board and press into a flat round. Wrap in cling film and pop into the refrigerator for at least one hour before using. For the filling, melt butter in a frying pan and add the olive oil. Gently saute the leeks and onions until caramelised about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and cool. Flake the trout into nice chunks, about the size of a 50-cent coin. Make a custard mixture by lightly beating together the eggs and combined cream and milk. Sieve through a jug and then add salt, pepper and herbs. Line 34 x 11cm rectangle flan tin with the pastry. Preheat oven to 180C. Arrange leek and onion mix in pastry case and place trout on top. Gently pour the custard filling over the top of the leek and trout mixture. Bake for 35 minutes until pastry is golden brown and the filling puffed.
