da da, the bricks are here

So... it was a saga and a half to get the bricks.  The delivery company never told us it'd come in two separate loads - and then they decided to deliver one of the loads a day early (thankfully a combination of my Mum on the phone, and my brother making a mad dash to get up there early saved the day).  And of course they all got confused about the location, having not paid attention to the instructions we gave when ordering.

But all is well in the end - they arrived safely and they are lovely.  This is my brother Pete showing a few off.   :-)

New photos from Google Earth!

I signed up a few months ago to get an alert whenever imagery in Google Earth was updated for our place. Lo and behold, today an email arrives. They've put on new satellite photos - this time from Oct 2009 when it was green!

It was quite fun to re-do the site plan map and see what a difference it made.  I especially like how in these new photos the dam is full and you can see the little dam shed as if it is floating. :-)



For comparison, this is what it used to look like, with the imagery from April 2007:

choosing bricks for the garden wall columns

We're having a big push on with work in a few weeks when Dave visits.  Dave and Dad are planning to focus on the house framing for the cottage extension.  Pete (my brother, who is a bricklayer by trade) is going to finally make a start on the vegie garden wall, and for that he needs bricks.

As this wall is such an important a part of my dream - basically I want a traditional English old walled garden that looks like it has been there 150 years - choosing the bricks was not straightforward.  Especially since I'd already compromised once.

To recap: originally I wanted a solid brick wall, but quickly learned a tall thick wall for a 25m x 40m enclosure was going to break the bank.  So now we are just having brick columns which we can then join up in between.  To begin the fill in will likely be a mix of wire or cheap fencing sheets, then as time permits  we can thicken it up adobe/cob style... perhaps even stick on cobbles and small rocks to finish like on this old wall we spotted in Cambridgeshire:



So, back to the bricks.  Originally the plan had been to use secondhand bricks to build the columns, because they'd be cheaper and also would have the right finish (ie: old and bashed about a bit).  That wasn't viable unfortunately as the only two places we found that could deliver them didn't have any in stock, and Pete wasn't willing to risk ordering sight unseen.  Apparently there is a big variation in quality - some are harder, 'first fired' vs others are more porous and 'underfired' so you have to inspect.

So then we started looking at new bricks.  Mum and Pete went to meet a friendly Ballarat brick supplier and sent me photos of their major lines.  Which was when I nearly gave up on the whole concept in despair.  Some of the bricks were OK colours, but they had nothing like the textured feel of the old English bricks I'd fallen in love with.

Luckily, Pete came to the rescue with his suggestion of Daniel Robertson bricks.  They're a bit more expensive, but justifiably so given they have a far nicer blend of tones and have captured that 'old' look even though they're new.  Just consider:

Elmhurst Red                                 Daniel Robertson blend 153
 

To cut a long story short, we've splurged for the Daniel Robertson blend 153 for all the visible bits of the columns... and saved a little money by getting the Elmhurst Red for the hidden parts.  Now we're reliant on Pete's bricklaying skills to get the right effect - but I have faith.  He's apparently been working on top-end heritage projects in his day job for a couple of years now so he's had lots of practice.  :-)

We have a bridge!!

I am so excited that I don't care I'm making myself late to work to post this.  Dad just emailed on his return from a working trip to Amherst.  He decided to surprise us by putting in the bridge to the "dam shed"!



Eventually this building will be a (quite fancy) garden shed/retreat.  But my dream is that it will be finished enough by the time I next visit so I can camp in it.  The big hiccup to that had been that after the heavy rains, we'd had no way to access it to finish the building work... now, thanks to the miracles of Dad, we do!!



Dad describes it thus: "It is a full 900mm wide and four panels long.  It is supported on steel pegs driven into the soil under the dam.  It is very sturdy.  It is approx a foot above the water. I could push a loaded wheelbarrow over it if needed. I used all the surplus fence panels from Toora to make an everlasting and safe bridge rather than a flimsy affair that needed lots of care to keep it safe.  I hope you like it as it was a bit of an ordeal to build"


I love it!  I especially love the curve - I hadn't even though about having it curved, had just presumed it would be built straight as that would be simplest, but having it curved gives is such a lovely shape, it's perfect.  The only thing we will do to give it a finishing touch is - eventually - put some decking over it, to make it look like a mini-pier / boardwalk.  But that's a minor detail - already it is functional and beautiful.  :-)

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.