fixing the gate, subtle and not so subtle

Oh, the fence...to keep the Possums out-
but the gate is beginning to wear,
swaying fiercely-
have started a ferrocement brace,
a sort of 'decorative buttress'
to extend it's life a little-
began by fixing the first step into the Garden
which was too short (ah, now i see the wisdom
 of the ratio of the rise to the tread on a step!)
i used cement/sawdust/clay mix and rocks

with a board by way of formwork

the bricks are where the step ended before-

 it were okay on the way up

but treacherous on the way down

(especially if carrying something and                                    

not able to see one's feet )

i am rather taken with it-

especially the colours

in that one trapezoidal stone.

Under the silver scrap of tarp at the left

is the foundation for the buttress

which doesn't look like anything yet...

but it is destined for great things-
a Gaudi-esque fantasy of a functional sort!

this is a flower that bloomed next to the steps-

now there is some fantastic 'biotecture'.

 Outside the fence, the native flowers are so tiny,

that you almost have to get on your hands and knees to see them-

they are as subtle as this one from a supermarket bulb is not.

Oil Pastel of a nearby

forest tree,

not particularly subtle either

but being the world's

tallest flowering plant

is hardly subtle!

                                                                         

thermal mass and other home improvements

Well, the fabulous subject of mud beautiful mud goes on and on...

here are before and after pictures of our Firebox at home-

it used to be quaint but guzzled wood, smoked like a bastard and

wasn't much good in a minus 4 degree winter!

Now it has improved efficiency and is elegantly useful -

the new 'skin' of thermal mass did the trick.

I left a 2 centimetre gap between the iron stove and the mud

which i filled with wood ash for insulation-

(Becky Bee said to do this and it seems to work

though i wasn't sure why exactly...)

Then i used a rough clay and sand mix for the first layer,
added sawdust to the mix for the second  layer
and a straw and mud mix (cob) for filling in at the back,

I set rocks in to hold more heat and used a final coat of sieved
sand/clay plaster with pussywillow fibres and the smallest amount
of aquadhere to keep it from being dusty (which worked!)

Here it is now-the center of our Winter World, heating water (and us!) drying tools, the laundry

and all the stuff that got soaked in the Big rains...

it even keeps our slippers warm and dry!

It has a seat built in next to it

(RHS just out of the frame, in use!)

that provides a warm backrest,

the perfect place to sit and read next to the window.

and the logs don't roll out onto the carpet anymore!

i love home improvements

                                                                                                                                     

                                                                                                     

wet wet wet

Call it climate change (or whatever might be politically correct?) but here in Tasmania's Northeastern Highlands, we have been experiencing local weather patterns as they were 50 years ago -that is, rain, rain and more rain!

Once it was so dry that when the dogs ran past, there were little puffs of dust behind their paws, (just like in the cartoons). Then everything caught on fire and I said i would never complain about rain again...not that i am complaining but there is alot to learn when it rains constantly for 2 weeks !

the sound of the rain on the tin roof is a siege dinn, the house-site turns to a huge butterscotch mud pie, the driveway doesn't work anymore (oh, the slippery slope!), there are leaks where there never were, the spillways on the dams become small creeks, all the tanks overflow, the white gums turn from milk white to a spectrum of green and the land seeps water for 3 weeks after the rain stops. It is Frog Heaven.

We have many different sorts of rain in Tasmania- i wonder if the Original People had 47 different words for rain? The Scots call a species of small rain a 'Smirrrrrh" ( i am guessing at the spelling- imagine it said with a thick brogue!)

Amazing, beautiful clean water, catch it in by the bucket ( ten dollars worth

if i bought it at the shop and i would have to dispose of the packaging after!)