inspiration from Sagamore Hill

We were just watching an American history documentary, when it showed a house: Sagamore Hill in Long Island, New York. It belonged to Teddy Roosevelt. It's a great house, but what struck me on sight was the colouring. We both really really liked it, to the extent that I'm wondering whether we should mimic the colours at Amherst.

Thanks to the wonders of Flickr here's some photos, showing it in different lights and seasons. (Thanks very much to those who took these photos and posted them in a form they could be blogged).


Sagamore Hill
Originally uploaded by cyclingbill2003


Sagamore Hill
Originally uploaded by halgil


360/366 Sagamore Hill
Originally uploaded by Amberture

The main house is coloured blue - of a similar albeit slightly lighter hue than the one we picked for the cottage. But what's different is that they've used a darker grey colour as accent for the window frames - whereas up till now I'd been planning to use an off-white.

I also really like how they've got the contrast with the rust red on some walls. That could work perhaps for the extension parts of the cottage - the upstairs bathroom part; the laundry - as well perhaps as the library extension on the main house? Need to think some more about this, but it has certainly given me some more ideas... Even if we didn't go with the red colour - the idea of having a sharp contrast - green perhaps? - is appealing.

daily weather during 2008

Checking the annual weather for Maryborough (nearest weather station to Amherst) is becoming a tradition - I did it in 2006 and 2007, and now here it is for 2008.

First, a graph of the maximum & minimum temperatures reached each day, in celsius:


(Click graph to see it full-size).

The hottest it got was 41 on 1st January 2008. This was the same maximum temperature as in 2007 which occurred the day before. The coldest was -1.8 on 8th August. A little better than here in London at least: we got down to -8 the other day, it is *freezing*.

Next, here's the cumulative rainfall, plotted daily:



Unfortunately we didn't have the same rain as in 2007, in fact it looked like it was going to be one of the driest years for a while until 13th December when over 50mm fell! Overall, there was only 376.8mm of rain for the entire year, meaning that the 13th December downpour represented over 13% of the entire annual rain.

To put this into perspective, here's a few chart looking at the pattern of rainfall historically:

Ebay win: painted firescreen

I'm a big fan of fire screens... I've found they're useful not only for redirecting heat but also hiding messy corners, whether they have fireplaces in them or not. :-)

So when I saw this I couldn't resist...



From the Ebay description:
A small Victorian fire screen with wonderful hand-painted floral decoration. It measures 33" high x 20" wide. There are many signs of general use, wear to the fluting on the legs & 1 panel is split as shown, but the wood is a wonderful colour.

Recent photos

Here are a couple of photos taken a few weeks ago that Dad just sent me.

I can't get over how big the trees are now... they almost look like proper trees! As well I'm really pleased with the deep blue colour of the house.

a stained glass Xmas present

Dad got Dave and I a great Xmas present this year... an antique stained glass window that he spotted in a Reclaim yard, that he says will go perfectly in the bathroom of the cottage.



Thanks a lot Dad. :-)

Ebay win: door handles & a large trivet

It's been a week for wrought iron. Two things came up on Ebay that we liked enough to bid on, and luckily we won both.

First, my favourites: some ornate door handles:



From the Ebay description:
Pair of 18th(?) century wrought iron decorative door handles with thread. They measure 16cm long each, thread is 6cm long.


Second, a large Victorian-era trivet:



From the Ebay description:
This is a wonderfully characterful if slightly wonky (but remarkably sturdy)
Victorian wrought Iron Trivet or Footman. I believe they were used for warming plates, kettles etc beside an open fire. It has nicely shaped cabriole legs at the front and makes a nostalgic display item or a usable accessory if you are lucky enough to have an open fire!

RIP little ones

It has been a tough month. On Thursday our beloved pet rabbit Giantess passed away, the Saturday before poor Frenchie succumbed, and 3 weeks before that, we lost Little Miss. This post is a tribute to them.

Giantess aka Maggie Pie



We adopted Giantess about 2 years ago from a rabbit rescue centre. She had been stuck in a small hutch all her life until then, so it was wonderful to see her glee at realising she could run around free. She quickly bonded with Bert and helped him overcome his grief at having lost Snoozie.

Giantess got her nickname because she was the biggest bunny we'd had: an English spot breed. She was over twice the size of Bert, and it was very cute to see them cuddling together, sometimes she almost draped herself over him!

She was quite overweight at the beginning: but luckily she soon got to a healthy weight with all the exercise. Her favourite was to get inside the round wicker toy we christened "the tardis" because she used to like to stand up in it and then swing it around, bashing into things to make a lovely attention-grabbing banging noise! When she'd had enough it also proved a great place for a nap (see photo).

Giantess was a lovely girl with a mind of her own. She quite liked being patted so long as there was a lolly at the end of it, but was never happy about being picked up. She really came into her own as a carer when Bert got ill. She spent hours each day grooming him and making sure he felt loved. I don't think Bert would have made the adjustment to being blind and paralysed back legs without Giantess's care.

Giantess got ill so suddenly we didn't have time to deal properly with it. One day she was bounding around, the next just flopped out and not eating, so cold and losing strength. Vet did tests and found her kidneys had shut down. The vet taught us how to inject saline fluids under her skin, to help keep her hydrated, and we managed that for a week, but then it just stopped working. The skin punctures from the needles weren't healing so we couldn't keep the saline in, and it was clear it was time to let her go.

Sadly, Thursday morning I took her to the vets. Before taking her up, I moved Bert over to be close to her. Even though she was so ill herself, she still spent 20 secs washing his face. I think it was her way to say goodbye. RIP Giantess, the house isn't the same without you.


Frenchie aka The French One



Frenchie was one of the three battery hens we adopted last year. She quickly became a favourite due to her quirky character. Frenchie was initially picked on quite a lot, and yet she was the smartest by far.

To help build her confidence in the early weeks, she used to practice putting on a fight in the mirror. She'd sit in front of it and puff out her chest at the reflection (her), then peer up over the top to quickly check there was no real chicken there.

She was the first to master the art of "carrying". Previously when we put in a treat for them like pieces of toast or cake, there would be a giant scrum over it wherever it lay. Frenchie figured out she could go in, grab some and then run away holding it so she could eat somewhere else in peace! It took months before the others caught on and started to copy her.

She was also the only chicken we've had who "used tools". Frenchie loved to eat snails, and of course the shells are quite a hard defence. The other chickens used to give up most of the time, but not Frenchie. She worked out that if she found a snail, she could carry it over to one of the garden stepping stones. She then banged the snail forcefully against the hard stone a few times to crack the shell. Such a clever girl.

Frenchie got her name because of her comb. When she arrived from the battery farm, her comb had grown so large it flopped over and covered half her face - like a beret. Over the year it gradually shrunk to a more normal size, but still she retained her distinctive look.

Poor Frenchie died in her sleep last Saturday. She had been ill the past week and although we'd tried to tempt her with treats, etc sadly it was not to be. RIP dear little one.


Little Miss



Little Miss was a pampered chicken. We loved her although I don't think she ever fully forgave us for taking her from her original flock. Back when C1 died we were left with a distraught C2. We needed to find her a friend, fast, and the only place we could find in London that was willing to sell us a hen was a children's farm in Islington.

A huge donation later, and I was driving home with a very grumpy clucker in the back seat! She'd had an idyllic life there with her flock, lots of barns all with hay for them to play in.

Back home she was introduced to C2 who was just so clearly delighted to see another hen she couldn't stop chirruping. Little Miss gradually warmed to her new life and ended up forming a close friendship with C2. At nights they would snuggle together, and Little Miss laid us the most fabulous pure white eggs.

She never lost her attitude though - her name truly suited! She was a lovely chicken in her own way though and we were very sad for her to have gone.

Ebay win: bentwood chairs

I stumbled across these chairs recently and loved them from first sight. Not only do I love the styling of the arms, they're a brilliant size: armchairs of a sort, but actually quite compact. It looks like it should be a pretty straightforward re-upholstery job too when the time comes.



From the description:
Two rather special 1920's/30's Art Deco reclining armchairs. Can be upright or reclined. Chairs need upholstering with a sympathetic material to suit their style, and one needs some very minor repair work which will be totally invisible when complete. A very simple restoration which will yield stunning results.

The restoration talked about is very simple: basically just one of the arms has come loose but all the parts are there. Just a case of some strategically placed glue/screws.