From the rooftop.....: House and Garden *June*

6 June 2011

House and Garden June

Heya,

Thought I'd send out a little overview of what is going on in the house & garden since last time I wrote about it.

Last weekend, we bought red bar chairs for the kitchen. Looks great and works really well.
Now, we can have breakfast by the kitchen bench and there are heaps of space to read the newspaper on the bench - as opposed to spreading the paper all over the floor and bend down to read it (= bad back).
NZ Herald is a huge newspaper!!!

Breakfast bar. Wine only served after 12 a.m.

We have ordered new venetian blinds and roller blind for the house. Still some few weeks to wait, but think it will look fab.
Next on the list, will be lined curtains.If anyone knows about curtain makers with a great selection of curtain fabrics, please leave a comment.

Oh...and I almost forgot. We are looking for a coat rack or two for the hallway and these are our favourites.

They are from Design Denmark and part of the SKAGEN collection. Just love it.
My darling handyman hubby will make them for the house so will show you when it is done. I am sure he can do it. He has made furniture before and they look good and are still in use.

There hasn't been a lot of activity in the garden lately. We are mainly just keeping it nice and tidy. The days are running fast during the week and it gets dark early, so it seems to be a weekend task if the weather is good.
Today, however, I have been planting two small trees in pots. We got them from our bank. Thank you bank!
(We must be good customers...haha)
The trees have been stored in our garage for a week and since the weather is back to summer today, it was time to plant them. Two more salad plants have joined the other salads in "Herbert's pot" and some herbs have disappeared.... The Coriander and two of the Basil's seems to have vanished in the rain. Will plant some more when the spring is back if they don't come back when it gets warmer again.
PS. If you see Mr. Coriander and Mrs. Basil x 2 crawling along the road screaming "too much water, too much water" please leave a comment and I will guide them back home into their pot.

Corokia "Chocolate Frosted"

Hebe Canterburiensis

Another exciting thing that is happening is the surprising blossoming of my Bird of Paradise plant. When we were living abroad, it was stored at the farm and I haven't seen it blossom for years and years.
Now, there are four!!! new stems coming (hopefully with flowers attached), but one flower is actually coming out already. We are heading towards winter here and I don't know if it is normal to blossom now. But hey! I won't complain. New picture will come when it has sprung.

Bird of Paradise (Strelitzia)

A new flower is coming..

The white bookshelf from Mykea hasn't turned up yet. I started sending inquiries of its whereabouts early May when it was supposed to have arrived and didn't hear anything for a long time. Lately I have had two replies about it being delayed, so next date for delivery is mid June.

Something we are considering doing in our courtyard is a vertical wall garden. If you have seen this weekend's Herald, you'll see pictures from one made by Justin Newcombe and it looks really good. Here is the article from the Weekend Herald. Pictures to be found here. Cool or what?

Here is a vertical garden on a whole different scale. I don't think we will go that far...
The picture is from the London luxury hotel "The Athenaeum" and the garden is designed by French botanist Patrick Blanc.