Category: Uncategorized

Design Dilemmas: Bathroom Blues

The man in the bathroom outlet store (‘outlet’ as in trading, not plumbing) reminisced about his grandmother using a blue bag to whiten the sheets. He was forthright, practical and, above all, humorous, which was a refreshing change from the serious salespeople we’d met up to that point. “No,” he said, dismissing a vanity top I thought might go. That’s what I needed to hear.

The outlet store gave us an insight into how the basin and vanity top we had selected would wear. Shop-soiled and often seconds, they showed unfortunate marking and we, thinking of me coming in from the garden with grubby hands, changed our minds again.

Here we are, me and my Bathroom Advisor Extraordinaire, back in the main showroom, looking contemplative and serious. We’re matching a ceramic, semi-recessed basin with a hard ‘Carrara (but not really) marble’ surface (shown in the block sample) and the floor tile.

Back to the drawing board. My B.A. (Ext.) suggested a mood board. I patched something together over the week.

My blue-mood board (a Pages document)

My mood got bluer as I obsessively found, selected, then re-selected and moved things about. I researched all manner of toilets, looking for one that had some character and a high pan height. My other sister-in-law advised chrome tap ware, as the gunmetal we’d chosen would probably date. She and my brother endorsed the idea of a high pan height for the toilet. Gradually my mood board took shape.

Although still a work in progress, the mood board has helped (as B.A. Ext. knew it would) to visualise the end result and the planning seems pretty much complete. Here’s hoping. Such a fuss about a tiny space! But I was shocked to see what my bathroom looked like back in 1993 before the first renovation (see top left corner of mood board) and I remember how difficult it was to remove all that red paint – and the layers of paint underneath. Now, this new renovation is necessary to address the sinking floor and the impractical shower-over-bath.

Meanwhile, B.A. (Ext.) found a digital programme and made a 3-D model.

You can move it around (but not on this screenshot) and visualise how it might look, hence the well-deserved new honour: ‘Extraordinaire’. And, hopefully, we’re done with the bathroom blues.

Mighty Melon

It’s proving to be a good season for New Zealand watermelon. We’ve enjoyed a few already, but you have to choose your moment and means of conveying it from the shop to home. I saw a woman drop one the other week. Car seemed the best option, but the traffic was busy. I chose to walk, taking a string bag, and lugged the watermelon home bumping against my bum – so it was well cushioned.

At home, I lowered the melon cautiously onto the scales thinking it would exceed the weighing capacity, but it came in at just over 4 kilograms.

Inside it is deep pink and very tasty and juicy (excuse my rubbish attempt at cutting. Perhaps I should have dropped it instead).

It’s practically seedless, and the pink flesh goes almost to the rind, so there’s little waste. This is a refreshing treat on a warm, sunny afternoon.

Call in the experts

“I can manage that myself,” I told the arborist when he offered to trim this pittosporum six months ago. Then birds nested in it. Before I knew it, it was heading for the power lines again. It was an effort to trim from the top of a wobbly ladder, with my arms at full stretch holding heavy hedge clippers. Some bits I couldn’t reach, so it looked as if it had a lopsided mohawk. I shoved the clippings under a camellia.

Today, I had another go. I planned to head straight through with loppers, getting the large branches as I went. I climbed down from the ladder to inspect my efforts. What a mess! Stark cut branches stuck up at the top and a pile of branches was half way up the ladder. And I was hot, sweaty and scratched. I rang the arborist.

A cheerful start to the day

Ruby Red kiwifruit are available again – for a short time, I expect. They are my favourite kiwifruit – a complex and fruity flavour. I was quick to buy them when they appeared in my local fruit and vege shop the other day, but by yesterday there were none. I would imagine that most of them are exported, like most of our primary produce.

I will enjoy the few I have each morning while they last.

Refreshing and charming

When the going gets tough, I look for something to make me feel better. When I stepped out of my art class this afternoon it was hot and windy. The sharp light and hard lines reminded me of the paintings of the Canterbury Group of artists in the 1920s to 1970s, who made it their mission to represent the local landscapes as they are, not in the romantic, European-influenced style of artists such as Petrus van der Velden.

Beauty pleases the eyes, sweetness charms the soul.

Voltaire quotation on the wall of Sweet Soul Patisserie.

It seemed a good plan to take the bus home rather than walking. On the way to the bus exchange I looked for that ‘something’ to make me feel better. I spotted a little slice of Paris: Sweet Soul Patisserie. I was enticed inside by the people standing transfixed at the counter. As I sat at an upstairs table (with a whisk-shaped table number) I looked down at the counter display while I enjoyed an iced coffee and a ‘Paris Brest’ pastry, and reminisced about my weeks in Paris in 2018. I re-read my journal yesterday and felt pangs of nostalgia.

Some people stopped to eat, others bought boxes of treats to take away. No sooner had one line of people gone, than more came in the door. The assistant was continually topping up the depleted counter display with fresh pastries.

I took one last photo as I left.

At home, the tomato plants looked disheartened and the sun umbrella had fainted into the blackcurrant bush. Water was administered (to the plants), and I thought of bedouins in the desert heading for the next oasis.

Last hurrah for summer

Japanese anemones/wind flowers make shadows on the path.

A woman at singing this morning reminded me that it’s the official last day of summer today. After several gloomy days, this afternoon is brilliant with sunshine. The crickets are chirping – always a sign that it’s nearly the end of summer. But the light is lovely, slanting in and casting shadows as the sun moves lower in the sky. The raspberries, apples and grapes are ripening. I felt a pang that the hens are all gone. They loved the grapes and would stand under the grapevine looking meaningfully upwards if I was near. I picked the first bunch today.

Blue sage towers over my head. The cranberries are plump and smell divine. The Japanese anemones flower in late summer and are at their best now. The roses are giving it their last shot. Bees are busy.

Blue sage
NZ Cranberry
The feijoa has grown tall and has fruit. The Cecile Brunner is still flowering above the Japanese anemones.
Busy bee in the roses
Strawberry Ice
Blueberry Hill

I found some new (to me) varieties of greens for the vertical garden. As ‘hardy greens’ they may prove to be good for winter salads. What great names they have!

Time to repair to the egg chair – with a slice of watermelon – to enjoy this glorious day. Perhaps we’ll have one of those lovely warm autumns…

Big leaves, fruit – little.

Big hat, no cattle.

Texan expression

I am usually overwhelmed with courgettes, but this year…no such luck. The plants look healthy, but the fruit is minute and often rots at the end. Gardening seems to be a mix of triumph and disappointment.

I overheard someone describe my garden as ‘overgrown’ which sent me into a frenzy of tidying last week. It just is that kind of garden, though, as I posted earlier about being ‘hands off’.

Flowers for the bees, including flowering broccoli. Ready to eat: beans, tomatoes, rhubarb, broccoli, silver beet, spring onions, potatoes. Just planted: more broad beans.

While I’m far from self-sufficient in the garden, it’s lovely to bring what you have grown in to the kitchen. Today I was pleased to find the first potatoes I’ve grown in this garden, and to add them to this ‘still life’.

And then to use the produce in a nutritious meal.

At the garden centre today, the assistant suggested there might be too much nitrogen in the soil where the courgettes are growing, as it’s where my compost bins used to be. Knowing more about the soil is something I could work on.

While at the garden centre, I was intrigued by a sign which made me look worriedly about my feet. Fortunately, I hadn’t stood on any monarch caterpillars, and I could see them on the swan plants.

Monarchs often flit about my garden, and I’ve seen a few yellow admirals this year – and lots of white butterflies. The egg chair is a good place to sit and watch what’s going on.

Design dilemmas: more tiles

My ‘bathroom advisor’ and I went to Tile Max to return the tiles we had borrowed. I was thinking that we could place an order for the sage green tiles we liked. BUT: we discovered a dozen or so model bathrooms at the back of the showroom and loved this one. The art deco style ties in with the age of my house (built in 1930 – just one year younger than Mum!). Instead of the usual black and white chequerboard look you associate with art deco, this tile is softer and interesting. We like the large subway tiles (less grout) on the walls too. The chandelier would be a step too far in my bathroom.

The sage green tile is now replaced by this one, also a Replica tile: Replica Provincial Gris. The distressed look goes with the rather battered look of my bathroom skirting board. (It’s battered because it shows decades of wear and tear and layers of paint which proved too difficult to remove when I stripped it back in 1993). It was a relief to see that we could keep the wooden panelling unpainted.

We spent ages looking at all the bathrooms. I could have moved in, they were so beautiful. We started comparing showers and tapware, enjoyed the tactile (haha) tiles and other features such as a large photo on the glass wall of one shower.

Bathroom advisor inspects shower fittings
Tactile raised pattern on splash back tiles
A restful scene to enjoy while bathing or showering

On Friday we meet with a bathroom designer to see what she has come up with. It’s turning out to be a drawn-out process, so let’s hope we get some progress after that.