The painting continues...

Ah yes, riveting times are here :)

We are still painting and I can see this continuing for a year or more at the rate we are going.

As they say, it's all about the preparation, and boy does that take a long time when your weatherboards are very weathered like ours are.

As you can see, we have painted this section apart from the bottom two boards, the very bottom one is a new board that we fitted on the weekend.

We have been stripping the window surround which is in a bit of a dodgy state.

Lyn has removed the front panels that cover the inner workings of the window themselves.

I don't know all the technical terms for sash windows but you can see the weights in my following photos.

Look at that big ol' rusty thing hanging there. I find it fascinating that it has been suspended there on that old length of rope for just over 100 years. Yes, clearly I need to get out more :)

It's difficult to see but there's some writing on the timber panel at the back. I can't work out what it says.

You can see the sorry state of the windows here.

There's barely anything holding the panes of glass in at the moment.

I'll be so happy to see this all patched up and painted.

The windows (not the panes, silly!) will be painted in the white colour and the fascia bit will be painted in the dark blue. I think it will look pretty nice.

xx

ps I have been meaning to tell you, the cheesecake-filled chocolate eggs I made at Easter tasted wonderful. They were a bit of a hit too :)

A fun outing with bags of history

Last Sunday my sister Rachael and I went on a historic tour to a couple of local properties, both of which I had been very keen to investigate :)

We started our tour at Dorset House ( I call it Benjafield House, as do many).

Built in 1840, it is an amazing Georgian homestead and I have to say, we were all so happy to step inside its cool depths on a day that was about 36 degrees Celsius.

Having peered over the fence many times, I was thrilled to be able to wander through the property and grounds at my leisure. Because it was so dark inside my pics are pretty horrible, but I wanted to share them anyway :)

The subtly toned entrance stained glass.

A beautifully painted table top.

I absolutely adored this planter. The owner Val had the most incredible collection of blue and white china. Swoon!

Each room was so ornate and heavily furnished. We didn't know where to look!

It really was like a museum and the owners were most trusting letting us freely wander through the rooms.

Outside, the garden was just beautiful. I just haven't captured it well at all.

Lots of shady spots and nooks and crannies to explore.

Out front are two massive Canary Island Palms. Just beautiful (ha! I keep using that word).

From there we walked a few streets away to the New Town Rivulet and our destination, Greenleas.

Whilst we didn't tour inside the many buildings on this sprawling site, we wandered through the gardens with our host as she talked us through the highly interesting history of the site.

But first, we enjoyed afternoon tea!

Aren't these macaron beautiful? They were quite petite in size, hence me scoffing four of them. Well, someone had to eat them, it would have been rude not to :)

One of the interesting aspects of this property C1821 was the high walled garden, complete with security system aka broken glass bottles concreted into the top of the wall. The reason for this? The courtyard was used to grown crops of tobacco.

Originally a 3 storey home, it suffered considerable fire damage in the 1890's and was restored back to 2 storeys.

Lots of interesting textures...

Funnily enough, the daughter of the owner of Dorset House bought this home with her husband in 1911 (just after our house was built) and their descendants still live there today.

These last few images were taken in an engine room of what was a pioneering cool-store for the refrigeration of export fruit. Well, we are the apple isle, aren't we?

I was very interested to read that famous Australian artists Tom Roberts and Frederick McCubbin (amongst others) visited the site. A painting of the homestead by McCubbin is in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria. Fascinating!

Well, I hope you enjoyed our little tour.
Oh my, can believe it's the last day of summer? I'm not very happy about that.
Happy Leap Year day to you all. Surely we should all have the day off work today?

xx

A Sunday walk

Lyndon, Molly and I went for a wander down to the creek this afternoon. Molly gets so excited if anyone says the "w" word.

It's nice for her to be able to run around off the lead.

Look at that happy face! Isn't my girl adorable?

The creek must have been freezing, but Molly went in anyway. It is very difficult to keep her out of water.

Shaking the water off. Not the most flattering photo!

Her legs look very skinny when they're wet. We always have a chuckle at her expense when she looks like this.

We walked past some really interesting old properties on our way home. I'd love to have a snoop. I'm sure they could tell some great stories.

I hope you all had a nice weekend too. Did you do anything fun? 

Looks like fish and chips for dinner and a relax in front of the fire watching Downton Abbey on tv. Do you watch it? I adore the dresses they wear :)

xx

Local discoveries

We went walking the other day and I discovered a lovely little spot only a few minutes walk from our home. It is Molly's new favourite place.

Sh just had to get in the rivulet to cool off. She looks tiny in the pic above, but in fact, that is one huge tree stump.

A lovely spot :)

We also wandered around a few streets I had not ventured down and found gorgeous old buildings.

Beautiful roses growing on rusty fences.

Old brick walls with shards of glass concreted in the top as a deterrent.

Wonder what's behind that old door?

There used to be a race course nearby here in the old days and we thought these may have been part of the stable area.

I had to stop every few minutes to smell all the amazing rose blooms. The roses are doing so well this year down our way. I have to admit, I love walking so I can get a close-up look at all the plants in people's gardens :)

Big yay for Friday! Feels like a long week but at least I have this weekend off to get some jobs done.

 Have a good one friends! xx

A vintage treasure

I was lucky enough to win a great vintage optometrist set on ebay very recently. It came from the US. I was amazed at the amount of bits and pieces in this set. As well as all the lenses, it has three pairs of spectacles, 2 pairs of spectacles that the lenses fit into, a monacle, extra little bridge, all the eye charts and a small collection of photographs of the man it belonged to.

Above is a photo of the store owned by Dr Joseph Levitan, the optometrist who owned and used the set.

These photographs show Dr Levitan at various times through his life, the last one is a polaroid taken in 1991 outside his shop. He retired in 1993 and passed away last year. I found his obituary online.

What a sweet little bridge with beautiful engraving and Mother of Pearl nose rests.

As you know, I use the lenses to make my pendants. It's a bit of a pity to break up a set but at the same time, it's of no real use anymore. Even with a few lenses missing it will still be interesting to me.

Speaking of pendants, those of you who were holding your breath for me to make a pendant for a giveaway....exhale! This week is my blogiversary so I'll be posting a giveaway to celebrate. Stay tuned!