Top of the Season to everyone! There is much to rejoice about, if you don’t live in Gaza, or have a psychpathic relation who thinks it’s cute to dress up as Santa before blasting you with a shotgun. For some, the rejoicing lies in not being with family. Our Christmas was spent in Sydney, dashing around between friends and family, with lots of food at every stop. I have a weakness for homemade trifle. I hope yours was as bountiful, and as free from conflict.
Soon we pack up again, for at least a few weeks in the new shed. Here is the view from the back, the painter’s vehicle was still there. It took a long time, and I’d been itching to see colour on the walls inside for years. The builder cleverly solved the problem of the awnings on the west facing back windows, which were required for the BASIX environmental/energy code, and also soften the industrial look of all that colour bond. Coming down the dirt drive, the steps on the deck at the back also offer a hint that there is something more than just a lot of shed. I plan to put some circular paving stones to lead people in the back door, and have more fanciful plans for a jug shaped rainwater catcher to collect the water from the porch roof. It can water the vine….

Before Christmas we worked like slaves for 4 days, hauling the furniture back again from the house to the shed. Eventually, the house will be rented as a 2 beddie, once we just close off the termite bedroom. Can’t face more major repairs, and anyway the coffers are now empty. Of course there were cost overruns, but the builder tells us that building a house that size from scratch would have cost a lot more. Moving was a good chance to clean up, and all those books brought down from Canberra will have to go. The library in Moruya will get an influx of books on the environment and politics, and I expect to see a lot of tattered Steven King novels for sale on their table outside.
But what a large and wonderful space it is, most of the curved roof now enclosed with normal ceilings, but with storage and an access door above.

Some of the furniture had to go, there were no takers for the big old wardrove that we just can’t move ourselves, and it never did fit in the house. George broke it up, and I saved the bakelite handles. It came from a retro set bought second hand when we set up house in Melbourne, now nearly 8 years ago. The 3 mirrors from the dressing table may yet be recycled into a tryptych, since George thinks we need lots of mirrors.
We’ll be taking a new ping pong table down, there is room for it in the living room. Some are barracking for a pool table, but that’s in the future. Table tennis is more my style, and I’m looking forward to honing my skills.

The windows are bare, and the pelmets are waiting for curtain tracks, so they lie on the floor. But we have tablecloths, and all the kitchen things dusted and in their drawers. I’ve save the old knobs from the kitchen, which we have replaced. The big corner windows now come into their own, with even a glimpse of the blue ocean in the distance.

It has all come up light and bright, and the insulation helps a lot, as does having all the windows and the floors sealed finally. Beasties not welcome. Our 2 cats came with us, but the black one doesn’t travel well, and spent the 4 days hiding behind whatever he could. But the Burmese, a calm, accepting Buddist of a cat from claws to tail, can come along again. And aside from the bed collapsing and the laundry overflowing, all went well.

To have so much space without stairs to climb is a real pleasure; the study now provides a haven to get away from the living room. Can’t seem to find any pics from when we first bought the place, nearly 10 years ago, but the shed had no windows, the shearing area for the goats (where the main bathroom now is) still had a wooden gate to let the droppings fall, and the old tin roof was hot and rusty. We would have been surprised to see the transformation, and that is a joy in itself. Nothing wrong with appreciating one’s accomplishments. And unlike Dick Cheney, mine don’t include war crimes. Some minimal landscaping with natives lies in the future.

Here we will sit with company (a friend and his paramour have just had a week there) and enjoy the bush, the kangargoos that bound by, and try to avoid the snakes. We saw a beauty of a red-bellied black snake on the road, and he slithered off onto our land. People will join us there to celebrate New Year’s Eve.
The best view is from the top of the hill on Brown Close, where the full structure looks kind of interesting, to me at least. When I showed photos in Sydney, some muttered Glen Murcutt, others mumbled Nissan Hut. It’s an evolved shed, and it works for us.

It’s a bit belated, but the pic below is my toast to all Aussies who enjoy the good life and the delights of the coast. It’s called ‘Christmas in Cairns’, and was an assembly in the lid of a picnic basket, shown as part of an exhibition of a group I belong to, artists of mixed amateur and professional backgrounds. The nativity scene came from Costa Rica. Dong up the shed and visiting Costa Rica to study Spanish were the good highlights of my year. There were bad highlights, too, but not today.