The house and the veggie patch

The week started with the lads finishing fitting the windows and doors, not an easy job as it turned out. Not only were they all very large and heavy (the glass panels not the lads)  but the large glass wall for the en-suite shower were a wee bit larger than expected. And 'wee bits' can cause quite a few headaches for those fitting hefty windows!

North facing side,en-suite almost ready for it's paddock stone walls.

The lounge and bedroom 1 have wall to ceiling windows, much like frameless sash windows. They are fantastic as you can't even see the join in the middle. These will be fitted with fly screens as will all the windows. And hopefully enable enough air flow to cool the house on really hot balmy summer nights. These windows go floor to ceiling, hot air rises, once opened the idea is for hot air to flow out of the top and cool air in through the bottom. Well that's the theory we may of course just end up with chilly ankles!

There are a few minor niggles with the windows and doors which hopefully the window chap will be able to fix when he comes next week.

Loverly louvre windows, the gap is where the front door will finally go.

Just need to sort out the front and laundry doors and we're at lock up.... YEAY.... And then the fun begins.

With the windows and doors fitted the lads were off to another job due back next week to fit the much anticipated cladding. Which finally arrived Friday afternoon. Huge pieces of deep blue corrugated iron were off loaded by hand, having been cut to size. Much like it was with the roof its hard to believe there is enough for the whole house.

Kitchen Plans

After a great deal of research (all great fun) I finally managed to roughly put on paper my idea of a great kitchen. Armed with my rough drawing and dimensions of everything I could think of Rick kindly drew it up. I have (or so the internet would have us believe) the optimum surface work area, apparently 3 linear meters. Simple and no wasted space I think are the key words to describe my kitchen. In my dreams I have a carefully crafted native wood (sustainable of course) kitchen with marble or granite work surface. A quick inspection of the finances indicates Formica or laminate will do nicely.

We are trying to keep the walls bare, storing most things in the huge pantry (which I'm hoping will be Tardis like). No breakfast bar but there will be a useful island to work on. Dishwasher, which I am sure I have waxed lyrical about before is white. The gorgeous range cooker and canopy hood are black. I want to avoid the monochrome, shiny modern kitchen out of a magazine look. I am also aware the cooker may take on a bit of a Darth Vader look, not a good look in a kitchen. I'd like subway tiles as the splash backs and possibly a warm terracotta colour floor tiles and perhaps work surface. Eclectic may also be another key word to describe the kitchen style.

So with all this jotted down in my super smart, newly drawn plans, off I trotted to visit the two places here in Naracoorte which fit kitchens. In fact I did this several times. One had the door open and a sign with a mobile number on to ring if no one was at home. Which we did to find they'd also left the mobile!! The other eventually declared via another sign Closed - Back on Monday.

I took solace in the veggie patch, after a visit to the nursery. Armed with tomatoes; pumpkins; a sultana vine; a chilli plant; peppers and chook poo (thanks Deb for the last two), oh and more polystyrene boxes (thanks again Debs), off I went. There is nothing like a garden to put everything in perspective. My plan is to use the poly boxes as mini movable veggie beds. They are nice and deep so in one I've planted carrots; chives; spring onions and parsley, all very good bed mates (well so the books tell me). Apparently the chives make the carrots taste sweeter... really?! This will be monitored with close interest and if I remember reported on a later date.... 

Two of the pea pods were finally just about fat enough for us to pick and sample. Oh what a moment that was. I've not done that since I was a child. It used to be my job to pod the fresh picked peas for dinner and being asked to whistle whilst podding. You can't eat peas and whistle at the same time!

The broad beans are not there yet. I reckon they are THE slowest growing beans ever - or am I just being impatient. Oh the joys of peas and beans to come.... I can hardly wait

I've been using a solar powered butterfly to scare away the real thing. It flutters and flits around just like a normal butterfly but as much better manners as it does not lay eggs (obviously). So far so good as the savoy cabbages etc are caterpillar egg free at the moment.

All things planted and then just like an early UK spring the temperatures dropped to minus - ARRRGH - for 3 nights on the trot. Poor things looked very sad but amazingly are holding their own.







Lesson learnt - early September here is  a wee bit like an early May in dear old blighty.