1930's architectural model

This isn't directly related to Amherst, except it has inspired yet another whimsical project to pass the time until we move back and can properly start!

I just found a lovely 1930's architectural model of a typical bungalow house. I think it's just a really cool display item, a piece of work-related art, just like the stained glass window designs we got last year.



The detailing is magnificent. It even has curtains painted on the windows and paper in brick, tile patterns on the outside. When we finally get the model of the new house at Amherst, I want to do something similar. A kind of real life russian doll to have a model of the house displayed inside the real thing. :-)



From the Ebay description:
"This is a rare vintage 1930's Bungalow architects plan model building. It measures approx 10" x 7.5" (from above) and is made from balsa wood. The roof comes off so you can see the inside plan of the building. It is in good condition for its' age, with just a few indentations on the roof and one of the chimneys missing. It's a must for any interest in the 1930's, especially if you've an interest in 1930's architecture".

Ebay wins: garden ornaments

These don't look much yet but wait till you see them in the garden. I think they'll be used in a herb garden, or perhaps just to line either side of a path on the way to the house. But first, they're going to do service in our London backyard. :-)



From the description:
A good run of reclaimed clay / terracotta garden edgings from a large estate in Gloucestershire. Condition is variable, the two runs shown are intended to provide an average sample. There are 60 pieces, around 18 m. Depending on your requirements, 3-4 m may be too worn. This is quite an unusual moulding and they are all handmade with some size variation. The eight on top of the pallet are the most worn. Approximate dimensions: Height 15 cm, Width 5 - 7.5 cm, Length 30.5 cm



Next, also for the garden, a stone mushroom. The picture shows 4 but we sadly could only afford one and so went for the tallest - the one in the back of the photo.



From the description:
Beautiful antique stone garden mushrooms. They are not concrete, they're 100% genuine solid stone. The back one is 1 foot 7 inches high by 1 foot 3 inches wide

Finally on the garden front, some lovely lions to serve as pot supports:



From the description:
Set of 4 superb and realistic terracotta lion plant pot supports. Each one measures 4.25 inches long by 3 inches high. They are very heavy for their size and are covered in age moss. They'd also make superb book ends

daily weather during 2007

I did this last year and have decided to make it a tradition. Here are some charts that show the daily weather in Maryborough, which is the nearest station to Amherst.

First up, here's a graph showing the maximum & minimum temperatures reached each day, in celsius:


(Click graph to see it full-size).

The pattern was similar to 2006, so no surprises. The hottest it got was 41 on New Year's Eve ie: yesterday. :-) The coldest was -1.9 on the 22nd July.

Next, let's look at rain. Here's the cumulative rainfall, plotted daily:



It looked like it was going to be another low rainfall year and then miraculously there were some huge rainfalls in late Spring and early Summer. As one of the best presents ever, the day with the maximum rainfall (50mm!) was Christmas Day!

To put this into perspective, here's a chart comparing the monthly rainfalls in 2006 and 2007 versus the historical average:


2007 turned out to be a bumper year for rain, with 590.1mm for the year - higher even than the long term average (527mm). The contrast to 2006 is vivid. In 2007 we got nearly double the amount of rain. Fingers crossed that 2008 is similarly as good. :-)

hello to Eric and Ken

A quick shout-out to Eric and his Dad Ken, who beat us to it by moving to Amherst 3 months ago. Needless to say, I'm very envious. :-)

Ken found me through the blog and couldn't find my email (now remedied - see sidebar) so left a note with our neighbors saying to call which Dad collected... Thanks again guys for getting in touch.

They've got some Agave Americanas in search of a home as well as a ton of lavenders - apparently Eric's place used to be a lavender farm and there are wild seedlings galore which are going to be bulldozed otherwise. Eric is also in need of some tongue-and-groove wood, so when Dad next goes up hopefully we can re-home a little of the wood pile ... Of course, we'll need to keep enough to do all the verandah roofs and sunroom, wainscoating, etc, but there seems to be SO much amidst the two truckloads that I'd guess there'll be enough leftover - I'll let Dad be the judge.

If anyone else who stumbles across this blog lives around there, please drop me a line - it'd be nice to say hello. :-)

redesigned library

Woohoo! Eric's sent through the first part of the redesign, and we love it.

From his email on November 7th:

I've been working through that list of modifications. Widening the hall and pantry was more difficult than I had imagined, but I have it working. It sounds simple, but I have designed the house to work on a simple structural module. That will help down the track with some of the details. Here are some sketches of the library tower and how it could work with some future bed rooms where the billiard table will go.

Here's the side view:



Here's the floorplan views:



Hopefully we'll never have to convert it to bedrooms, but so pleased we have the option. We could either put it to two small bedrooms as this shows, and convert part of the laundry to be a shared bathroom for them, or else put in just one lovely downstairs bedroom with ensuite.



Finally, this shows the first floor and rooftop balcony for the library tower. Not much to say about this except that we love it. I know it's utterly whimsical and we'll probably use the tower balcony once in a blue moon, but it will be such fun to have and give a great looking over the houses and garden.

Orchard fence is halfway there

We've prioritised getting the orchard fence built so that it was done in time for Spring, when the trees put on their biggest spurt of growth. Let's hope it makes a difference.

As a reminder, here's what we planned.

Dad has now got the poles in, including some fabulous dead tree ones! I wish we had more dead tree ones but it's OK, we shall work with what we have - it's going to look better than I hoped I think.

A birds eye view

Dave discovered that Google Earth had recently added new photos at much higher resolution covering Amherst. You can see the trees we planted!!!

Here's a close-up for the house and garden area. This is my favourite view. I love how not only can you see the trees, but also the outline of the walled garden area, right down to our first start at making vegie garden beds. From this view I can see we've got the sizing right relative to the house + the placement... it was so hard to judge at ground level.


Here's a view covering the entire property:


It's a little deceptive as it makes it look flat whereas in reality it's on a kind of rolling hill.

Finally, here's a close up of the far side, where you can see the baby olive trees.

trusses for shed

Dad got some great trusses. He's going to use them to make a temporary shelter for building materials he needs to clear out from his backyard. The picture of the random carport shows how he's thinking it will look.