This Weekend I'll Be.....

.......transplanting all the hundreds of 'Babies' that our gorgeous Christmas Lillies have just presented us with into lots of smaller pots &

.......telling the 'Parents' how proud we are of them!

........dashing around the corner to the Organic Market to pick up some fruit & vegies &

.......and a couple of loaves of yummy local Hills bread.

........responding to a request from MOTH for a big dish of Millie's Moussaka &

.......opening a bottle of red to enjoy with it &

........ doing an encore performance of this yummy Macadamia, Port & Prune Cake from the lovely Anna @ TOXTETH. MOTH said is was best cake I'd made in years! Get the recipe here.

.....and best of all, sneaking up the road to the Mount Lofty Golf Course for some important negotiations with the local wildlife & my handicap!

So whatever it is that you're planning this weekend, make sure it's FUN!

Image 1:Country Style Image 2:Millie Images 3&4:The Organic Market Stirling Image 5:News Ltd Image 6:Paul Whicheloe Image 7:Toxteth Image 9: iseek golf

A Big Raspberry

Image Country Style (Caroline Zoob)

.....to my work Lap-Top! Just when I needed you to perform at your best, you decided to go belly-up first thing yesterday. Don't worry that it's the end of the month & I need you desperately, so that I can extract data & financials to write all my reports, I've got a zillion Quotes that need to get out to clients before next Monday & the only way I can access my email is via crappy Webmail on the back end of our global Server. Oh & then there's the small issue of all my appointments being on my Outlook Diary. So back you've gone to the IT experts in Sydney, wrapped in bubble wrap with my stuff trapped inside you! So let's not muck around here, instead of one big raspberry, here's a whole damn bowl of them just for you!

No Turning Back

Another big day in the Bathroom From Hell - Russell the Plumber is finalizing all the channeling of the brickwork & the setting in of all the new pipes for the double shower, sink & loo. Too late now if MOTH's measurements are incorrect, if they are we're done for! I've decided to go for a single, very schmick looking tall mixer that will be set in the stone top of the cantilevered vanity, rather than individual tap/faucets on the wall or ones set into the sink. This does involve more work, but Russell said those magic words to me very early on 'Millie, I can do anything you want.' & I've taken this & run with it! While I really love the bathroom I posted on Friday, this one from the talented designer Helen Green is very different, but just as gorgeous. Send your prayers to the Gods of Perfect Measurement for us today!

All images Helen Green

Pretty Darn Gorgeous!

Adelaide's architectural style is easily recognizable to our interstate friends. Classical stone (bluestone & sandstone) houses set on large blocks of land laid out on a well-defined grid system of streets - that's what we're all about. Because I just can't help myself when it comes to these beautiful old buildings, here's a few offerings currently available at the moment for anyone tempted to cross the border & discover our hidden treasures. And still at very affordable prices - shhhhh!

A sensational double-fronted Edwardian sandstone villa in wonderful North Adelaide.

This very imposing Edwardian sandstone villa c.1910 with bay-window is in Fitzroy, a couple of minutes from the CBD.

A very cute double-fronted bluestone mid-Victorian villa in one of Adelaide's prettiest suburbs, North Adelaide.

A stunning bay-window early Victorian sandstone villa in magical Medindie.

A double-fronted sandstone Edwardian villa c.1910 in inner suburban Dulwich.

A big return verandah bluestone Edwardian villa c.1912 in Malvern.

A double-fronted Edwardian sandstone cottage/villa c.1908 in Parkside (in between Eastwood & Unley).

A double-fronted Edwardian sandstone villa c.1901 in fabulous Malvern.

A cute little single-fronted Victorian workman's cottage in Eastwood. So named as these were often a 'starter' house for a young couple. Eastwood adjoins the CBD, & often the residents worked in the big mansions close by, so they were able to walk to work each day from their home.

This bluestone villa in gorgeous Rose Park looks to be very early Victorian.

A cute Edwardian semi-detached (these properties were built as pairs sharing a common wall) in our old suburb, the lovely Unley.

All images Realestate.com.au


And lastly, a picture of our old house, a late Victorian return-verandah (triple fronted) villa in Unley, complete with MOTH's much-loved standard Roses. A labour of love for over 15 years, much blood, sweat & tears were expended here, just as we're doing all over again here in Stirling!

All Tied Up

Image Garden Visit

On Saturday Son # 5 (the Landscaper) completed a big job he's been working on for the past 2 months. I drove past the house yesterday & wow, I may be biased but the results are just spectacular. I showed him all the wonderful comments from my previous post on his work & in his own quiet, reserved way he was really delighted - thank you all so much for your lovely feedback. I'll post on his latest project in the next couple of weeks.

We were talking about formal gardens & the subject of Knot Gardens came up. He's had a request from a client to do a small version in a walled, semi-shaded courtyard, so we've being doing some research together. He loves the challenge of precise, formal work & by the speed of referrals he's receiving & his long waiting list, it appears this has become his trademark brand.

Originating in the Elizabethan period, knot gardens are traditionally placed in a courtyard & are designed to look like the pattern in a woven rug or tapestry. Low growing hedges & gravel walkways were used to simulate the interwoven effects of the pattern & clipped trees & shrubs are used to form the central pattern generally in the form of rectangles, squares or circles. Often, perfectly balanced topiary trees are used as a feature in the corners of the design. They are best seen from upper storeys or balconies of a house & they look particularly spectacular from the air.

Because of their precise layout and reliance on geometric shapes, knot gardens are traditionally high maintenance, as the hedges and plants must be constantly trimmed and pruned. Traditionally, knot gardens use one type of hedge only to border the walkways, & it's generally Buxus because it's easy to shape. Then various types of plants, shrubs, flowers or herbs are used to fill in the various compartments. In Elizabethan times, knot garden compartments were often filled with colourful medicinal herbs.

Image Rafter Tales

Image Garden Visit (Little Moreton Hall)

Image House to Home

Image My House & Garden (Hatfield House)

Image NGS

Image Magical Heritage of Essex (Layer Marney House)

Image LondonTown (Hampton Court Gardens)

Image UK8 (Sudeley Castle)

Image i.ehow

Image GOGG

The Tracks of my Tears

Oh how I'd love this! Then there'd be no more hip & shoulders with MOTH as we both try & clean our fangs over our one remaining totally inadequate bathroom sink at night.

This wide, sweeping space leading from the bedroom into the bathroom is totally awesome.

The small dressing table space is perfect & the floor-to-ceiling glass windows at the end of the room just bring the outdoors straight into the room. And don't even get me started on all that wardrobe space!

The use of this milky glass adds great interest to the room.

How good does the tub look encased in glass!

Images McInturff Architects

Yep, you guessed it, another bathroom post! Although it was a joy to peek into the Bathroom from Hell when I got home from work yesterday & see that progress has been made. Russell the Plumber had spent the afternoon on his belly in the dirt in the tiny space under the concrete floor organising all the pipework & I can see new fittings - hooray!

What's not to love here, everything is divine. The Owners are European & asked the architects to totally rework their entire Master Bedroom/Ensuite Bathroom/Dressing Room space - how jolly sensible of them! The bedroom was moved into the former bath & dressing area and the larger bedroom space was then transformed into a combined bathroom and dressing area.

A glass bathing area was created (including basins, bath and shower) as a free standing structure standing within the larger dressing and wardrobe area, at work I'd being calling that a Co-Axial System! All the surfaces of the bathing area (I just love that term!) — doors, walls, bath surround and vanity countertops — were clad in glass to allow light to create a spectacular environment for a soak in the tub!

This whole renovation is so gorgeous, if it was mine I'd never want to leave! MOTH would be sliding my meals & mail in under the door. It's the weekend, enjoy all the treats that come with it.

Summer Nights

Images Chesapeake Life Magazine

Originally a sad & dilapidated 1953 two-bedroom ranch style house, it was the location, on the banks of Carter's Creek in the Northern Neck area of Virginia that attracted the Owners, a couple from DC.

They bagged & painted the external bricks, added a new cedar shake roof & enlarged the floor plan to include five bedrooms and five and a half bathrooms.

A black slate pool was added & then a pool house was built alongside complete with working fireplace. An iron lantern rigged with a pulley system that makes it simple to light the candles inside hangs over the table. The Owners say that it is the pool house & terrace area that's their favourite feature of this really delightful renovation.

It's Better the Second Time Around

Images Home Beautiful

Regular Hedgies will know that MOTH's pseudonym is Steptoe's Love Child. He's renown for never throwing anything out, just in case 20 years on he may have use for it. While we all give him heaps, I secretly love the way he can produce something out of recycled stuff & recently he's totally reworked my upstairs linen cupboard. Like our kitchen, it was just horrible varnished timber & not a good look, so he knocked it all down, saved everything & created a small corridor into the main bathroom with plasterboard where the cupboard was.

Then using all the old cupboard components he's built me a fantastic new/old linen cupboard into that area. It has a set of wonderful double doors refashioned from the old ones complete with new door hardware & now opens from the main hallway. He reused all the great old solid wooden shelves & has set them way back & deep so that I when open up the doors, I can walk right into cupboard & have a good rummage around. He's also installed whizz-bang lights that come on when the doors open. Pics will come soon, once the last coat of gorgeous white paint goes on.

Thinking about all things reclaimed, I remembered about these fabulous images from a very talented furniture designer Karl Bergersen. Karl has a store on Parramatta Road in Leichhardt, Sydney called Three of a Kind & is crazy for all things Americana. It has become his signature style & he takes his inspiration from the Tex-Mex way of using bold colour in decorating.

Using recycled timber & handmade glass, he produces all manner of pieces such as tables, entertainment units, chairs & sofas. He uses bits of paraphernalia like a set of pool-table/snooker balls as handles on a chest of drawers, vintage movie & advertising signs on storage cupboards & old country & western album covers embedded into bar tops. I love the quirky & colourful style of his designs & think of MOTH & some of his crazy/good recycled creations - I reckon he & Karl would make a great working pair.

Security to Aisle 5!

Image Geocities

Yesterday MOTH & I were forced to have a second attempt shopping for bathroom tiles & all the fittings. We tried about 6 weeks ago, but the whole thing ended in tears, with the Store Manager almost calling security to break us up, me storming out of the store in exasperation & no speakies for the rest of the day. However, this time MOTH rightly enough saw sense in all my choices, so Reece Plumbing at Mt. Barker were able to breath a little easier & stand-down the 4 Pinkerton guards they'd hired when they found out we were on our way again! We are under the pump to finalize everything as Russell the Plumber wants to start doing all the pipe-work on Thursday.

MOTH worked all weekend at a customer's place, but did spend a few hours starting our bathroom framework on Sunday night. Yes, that is a chink of night sky peeping through the hole in the wall! He also pulled down the existing plasterboard ceiling, only to be greeted with the most amazing sight - the original 1972 straw ceiling. This hideous stuff has been present hiding away in every other room, but honestly, what were they thinking when they put it in a BATHROOM of all places!

Yes, I know it looks terrible at the moment, but never fear, MOTH has worked wonders for me in other bathrooms & I know this one will be just as good.