A productive afternoon

I have an ottoman. We bought it years ago, very cheaply, and it has been the perfect size and shape for our living room furniture. But sun and age battered the cover, which cracked, split and tore over the last year. I was unwilling to spend hundreds of dollars to buy a replacement. So, in a fit of ambition, I trotted off to the fabric store, and found some upholstery fabric I thought might be fun. I bought some extra padding too, and after several weeks delay, finally began putting it together.

Precision was required for a smooth fit, so I had to pay attention to measurements, ensure the circle for the top was indeed circular, and meticulously match the patterns together – my fabric wasn’t wide enough to go around the ottoman base in one length (width?). As I did that last part on the floor, it took a toll on my knees and back, and I needed a break. But by yesterday, I knew I had to get it finished.

It was a gorgeous day. I fully intended going on a walk, but was more determined to finish the project first. I opened the window, listened to the tui serenading me all afternoon, turned on Stephen Fry’s seemingly endless (but also endlessly amusing) audiobook of Mythos, and set to work. Pinning, tacking, then finally sewing the various seams took time, measuring each time, checking and checking again that it will fit without wrinkles and lumps and twists. I even had to figure out how to do buttonholes again – my sewing machine, bought at university back in the 1980s, seems to have lost its buttonhole programming, but otherwise works well – so when I reattached the feet on the bottom they wouldn’t tear the fabric. But I got it done. And it fits. The satisfaction of a good afternoon’s work.

My tuneful tui visitor

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Do-it-yourself Décor

It’s been almost nine years since I changed the photos on our black-and-white travel photo wall. It runs up a half-flight of stairs to our bedroom landing from the entrance and guest-bedroom floor, so is a key feature of our décor. The photos already on the wall weren’t the best examples of black-and-white photography, as they were all originally colour pics, and didn’t always translate perfectly when they were desaturated into a black and white image. But they were photos of places we had loved, and we always enjoyed looking at them.

Finally, after starting a year or so ago, I have finally finished our wall. I’ve gone back to some old favourite photos – the oldest are from trips to Jogjakarta and Angkor Wat back in the early 90s! The newest are from our Africa trip last year. Four continents are represented on the wall – Africa, Asia, Europe, and Australia. I think that’s a good cross-section, although they are dominated by photos from Japan and Iceland. Both places were perfect for black-and-white photographs. Most of my Korean or Vietnamese photos were too vividly colourful to translate to black and white. Gorgeous Norwegian fjords and scenery also don’t work so well in monochrome, colourful African birds lose their vibrancy, and African animals are camouflaged into their backgrounds. Selection, therefore, was tricky. I’m very pleased with the result though.

I make no excuses for filling our house with our photographs. We take photos of places that gave us pleasure, or are beautiful, and that we want to remember. There’s some joy and pride in knowing that this is a low-cost but original way of decorating the walls, and one that gives us pleasure every time we walk past it. I don’t quite understand people who are into photography, but don’t do anything with their photos.

Here are some of the photos newly gracing our wall:

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Decluttering a favourite room

In preparation for visitors, I am trying to declutter my office, which will have to be converted, briefly, into a bedroom for my niece. In 2018, on my daily blog that year, I wrote the following:

“It is my sanctuary at the top of the house. Two windows – a window opening onto trees and the valley below, and a large skylight in the gabled roof – bring peace and light to bookcases, a pull-out couch for reading and relaxation, a Persian meditation rug, some favourite paintings and photos, and my desk and laptop.”

Mali on x365 Take Two

What you don’t know is that I wrote this in our “Secrets and Lies” themed month, and this was a lie. Though like most lies, it was based largely on truth, and a lot on hope. It IS my sanctuary at the top of the house, and the windows are perfectly described. The window opening onto the trees and valley is behind me, often has tui and kaka and kereru squawking and chattering and cooing away in the huge tree, and brings in so much light it forces me to use a background on Zoom that cancels out the glaring brightness. From it, I can see the weather coming from the south, with dark, cold clouds encroaching on the city. But today, it is light and perfect, and the visibility shows me houses and hills several valleys and suburbs away.

The skylight above me shows the clouds racing across the sky on a windy day like today, is full of the green leaves of the evergreen ngaio trees, and occasionally a happy tui sits there watching me. I love both my outlooks. There are some paintings and photos, and there are definitely lots of bookcases and cupboards. But the area where the pull-out couch and Persian rug would be is covered in boxes and bags full of things that need to be sorted and purged, some of it going back to a time when I was depressed, some of it after my mother died, and other things after my in-laws died. I couldn’t face dealing with them when I brought them home, nicely stored in document boxes. So they have gradually piled up on each other!

Since I started decluttering, I’ve found all sorts of things. The decluttering has taken longer than expected, probably because I’ve ended up reminiscing! Here are some of the things I’ve found:

• Recipes from my husband’s grandmother, including her “War Cake” which was a butter free, rich fruit cake from WWII days. (Actually, I’m assuming not WWI, when she would have been a teenager). The first time I ever met her, she proudly served me War Cake. It was very rich. I now see that the butter was replaced with dripping, so I’m not surprised!

• A love letter from my father-in-law to his wife on their wedding anniversary, the year he spent several months in Europe on a long business trip away from her. It was very sweet, but made me think that I don’t want anyone going through anything like that of mine! So any letters I’ve written my husband will be purged in this decluttering effort.

• A collection of cartoons that I cut out of the newspaper about 20 years ago, when George W Bush was US President. US politics affects the rest of the world, especially in times of war, and they give NZ cartoonists with a lot of inspiration! I’m not sure why I collected them – it was largely pre-blogging days. And I’m not sure that my US readers would find them that amusing, though they still make me laugh and shudder in equal measure. Still, they were a snapshot of a time. Here’s one as an example:
  

• Feedback from staff members who attended some courses I ran at a former company. It was heartening again to remember the positive responses I got from people who were often very jaded by so-called “professional development.” I guess I was always one of these – over the years there was only one or at most two courses I attended that really gave me useful information that I then applied to my working life. So it is nice to remember that I gave useful tools to all these colleagues. (My favourite feedback was from the guy who wrote, “finally, something I can actually use!”)

• Soooo many half used notebooks and writing pads. Based on the number collected, I need never buy another one, especially as these days all my writing is online. But just sometimes, it’s good to scribble some thoughts down. I need to do this more often, because my hand-writing is deteriorating badly, as I discovered when I recently wrote a birthday card for my sister.

• Photos of my mother and her two sisters, all gone now, school photos of one of my now grown nieces, and pictures of my twin American nieces when they were babies, and again, as cute little cowgirls ready for Halloween. I even found the wedding invitation from their mother and father.

I think I’ve kept a lot of these things because I couldn’t bear to throw them out. But today, this year, I am much more ruthless! When it comes to decluttering, ruthless is good. Ruthless and decisive, however, are not words that would usually be used to describe me. Wish me luck! And I will report back if I manage to finish the decluttering, and can show a transformation into a writing haven up here in the treetops. I’m even hopeful of buying that couch, using it as a spare, spare, spare bed, but more importantly, as a cosy reading nook in my sanctuary amongst the trees.

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Kitchen thoughts

I need to redo our kitchen. Later this year it will be thirty years since we put in our current kitchen (though we’ve had appliance changes), and it needs updating, even though my friends tell me it still looks good. (I’m pretty sure they would tell me if it didn’t!) Fortunately kitchen trends haven’t changed enormously in that time. But the resin benchtop is disintegrating, and some of the cupboard door edges are looking a bit knocked about. Aside from the issue of colour choices (so hard to make), I’m also thinking about how much space we actually need, and how to better utilise the space we have. The largest part of our bench space is unused – we have a large fruit platter on it, and tend to put our recycling there until we throw it away. Whereas the workspace I use most (between the sink and the stovetop) is smaller and often feels a little cramped. And there’s the added complication of symmetry – the sink sits perfectly under the window (it has a beautiful view of our deck, cabbage trees, and camellias), and it would seem wrong to move it!

I hate to throw things away, and the pandemic has accentuated my food hoarding tendencies, introduced them in the Husband, and created shortages of favourite items (so we bulk buy when we can). This means we have way too much packed into two large pantries, but won’t starve if we have to isolate! They’re squeezed into the laundry next door, that now doubles as a laundry/scullery. I’d like to see if I could integrate this room with the kitchen.

I want to have an appliance cupboard to tidy everything away off the bench. I still use the microwave (although we need a new one), and don’t mind that being public, but want to hide away the bread bin, toaster, and electric jug. Though we use these every day. If I could squeeze in the food processor, blender, handheld mixer and cake mixer it would be perfect, but I think that’s stretching the bounds of reality. Oh, for a Tardis kitchen!

I’d love a double wall oven, but I think that’s impossible given my space constraints. However, just writing this has got me thinking about the possibilities. However, it would mean I wouldn’t get to have my much-loved pull-out pantry, that has all my basics – the sauces, oils, flour, sugar/honey, couscous etc. And that’s one of the best things about my current kitchen. I don’t think I’m prepared to give it up. Unless I move the fridge. No, that would be impractical. You see the dilemma?

A few years ago my sister and her husband installed a new kitchen at their house. She – bravely, to my thinking – left it to her working-from-home husband when she was working full-time. Her kitchen looks fantastic, and there are parts of it she loves. But she lost storage space, and she didn’t have a huge amount before that. I could never relinquish kitchen-control like that! I recently looked (cursorily) online at prices for new kitchens, and I was truly horrified. Instantly, I calculate how many overseas trips (or months spent overseas) that would be. As always, I think compromise is going to have to be key. Sigh. Oh, for the lotto win!

What are your favourite kitchen features that you couldn’t possibly give up?

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A tree visitor

Over the years, I’ve come to be fond of this visitor tree. It’s from Australia, and is a variety of eucalyptus. According to Google, it is Eucalyptus calophylla. When we moved into the house, it was small, below the level of our driveway and entrance, but has grown now, above the window of our guest room. When the tree was smaller, in a strong wind it would aggressively hit the wall of the guest room, causing some of our guests to get a rude shock in the middle of the night. Now that it’s bigger, it doesn’t hit the wall with such ferocity, so they are more likely to get a peaceful night’s sleep! I think. (Maybe one of my readers who knows can confirm in the comments).

It flowers in late summer/autumn, which is now, and the bees love it. It gets sun only late in the afternoon in the summer, so maybe it’s not getting enough to flower profusely. Or perhaps the rest of the flowers are still to come. I took these photos about a week ago – there are a few more blooms there now (as I peer outside my window to check), but it is windy, so I wouldn’t get good photos. The flowers are quite pretty, and it makes a welcoming sight at our front door.

Another in the Thursday Tree Love series – find all the other bloggers doing it here.

 

 

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