Where the palms are gently swaying..
I chat with people online and they all are going on about how hot it is and their summer vacations and here I am in the middle of winter California dreamin'.
Here in Auckland not all the leaves are brown and the skies grey..and I did go for a walk today...and I noticed..nikau palms.
I'm thinking wouldn't it be nice to have a few nikau palms near our deck so in summer they can provide a hint of paradise and shade under their arching fronds. I wonder what Mum would say. The west side of the house has a wooden deck where the chickens ice skate and mummy cat walks the catwalk, and where, on sunny days we air our blankets. There is also a corner nearest the kitchen that mum has set up as her second outdoor kitchen and plugs the stove top onto a makeshift bench to cook soups and salty chicken. I have rescued a round deck table from the SPCA opshop which is also in this corner. There were four chairs that go with it but they seem to have rotted, or are unstable, so currently they are in corners near the house and not really used for sitting on. The problem with our deck is it needs painting every now and again, and it's long and narrow so you can't put a decent deck setting on it. And there is no awning or shade.
Underneath we've got hay for the chickens and they scratch around in the soil there. There's also a few potted orchids and succulents that like the shade underneath the deck.
I used to have a steamer deck chair like you'd see on the Titanic that my brother bought me one christmas but..it was meant for someone more giant than me and when stretched out wasn't really comfortable for lounging on without cushions. So that ended up being shunted into storage also as it needed staining and couldn't be left outside to rot.
So..I'm wondering what can be done with this long narrow space that doesn't have any greenery anywhere. Its like an observation deck but nothing much to observe, it overlooks Fluffy's corner garden and the tangelo tree. I can't hang things off the barricade as..we put towels and blankets there to air them in the sun. All the pots with plants are moved to the concrete verandah on the north side of the house. I have put in a solar light down the bottom of the steps to light the way..but so far, it's pretty uninspiring. I need some furnishing that won't fade, crack or warp in the sun. I'd like to have somewhere to read a book or something.
Two sliding doors open out on to this deck but..I find them very annoying, constantly sliding in and out. It would be better to have proper french doors but this was the 70's. Aluminium was all the rage. Any ideas?
