hessian rugs make great sun shades

Besides the tiles, the other big idea I got from our Seville trip was the notion of using hessian rugs as window shades.  We saw them in quite a few places as an alternative to the more intricate blinds.  I can imagine they would work better too as they'd be heavier and thus block out more light.



Of course, we'd have to think carefully about how they were used at Amherst to ensure it didn't cause more bushfire problems.  Maybe they're in a form that can be easily taken down during high risk periods.  Or maybe we don't do it at all... still, I like the idea :-)

tile inspiration from Seville

We spent a few days last week exploring Seville.  It's one of those places I had been meaning to go for years just never got round to - but very glad we did as it's been my favourite place in all of Spain so far.

As is usual when I travel these days, I'm always looking out for ideas for things we could do at Amherst and Seville didn't disappoint.

I've always loved tiles and in Seville they were everywhere.  It was common for buildings to have little tile panels as decoration, they were on the walls, underneath balconies...

 

They were on the floor...

 

They were used on stairs, at the edge of ponds... and even on garden paths as flowerbed edging

 

But my favourite of all, they were used to make benches...

 

We were pretty limited in terms of our baggage allowance in what we could bring back, but we did manage to scout out a tile shop - Ceramica Santa Ana, in Triana - and buy enough to do the edging on two small benches at Amherst.  Here's the shop:

 

and here are the tiles we bought - we got 12 of the curved edge tiles, and 10 of the bigger ones:

Orchard mowing

Dad helps us out a lot, but he can't get up to work there as often as he would like - and when he does go much of his time seems to get used up by maintenance.  So, we decided to find someone local to help us out with the garden work - and were put in touch with Michael who is proving to be a godsend.  Not only did he do a brilliant job mowing the orchard, he sent photos!   :-)

Lillicur road was flooded

So it's been raining like crazy ... with the result that some of the driest parts of Victoria have been deluged by flood.  Our place thankfully is fine as it's on a hill, but on the flatter parts it was pretty wet.  I hadn't even realised there were creeks that ran across Lillicur Road until Vida sent me these photos - it's from Dad's last visit... thankfully he managed to get through OK but apparently it was touch and go for a bit.