The Rain Forest

Maybe the title is a slight exaggeration but my idea to introduce a rain forest area in a corner of this front garden in Wollongong has worked far better than I could have imagined. The ferns, bromeliads and alocasias amongst others have worked really well alongside the pool with cascading waterfall. The dry stream bed running through the garden not only adds to the atmosphere but also has a practical use in diverting rain water away from the house where it used to pool around the front door.
This garden  is still under development, mainly due to most of my time being spent on renovating the house. Now the house is nearly complete I hope to be able to spend more time working on this garden. More pictures to follow in a later blog.

Singapore

A beautiful and gentle Orang utan at Singapore Zoo. Without any doubt Singapore Zoo is the most beautiful I have ever visited. It made such a refreshing change to see the animals given plenty of space and not in tiny cages. The first animals we saw on entering the zoo were the Cotton Top Marmosets. These beautiful little monkeys were living in the trees near the entrance and you could reach out and touch them. Picture below.

Here's me at the World famous Raffles Hotel.

While there Taras and I enjoyed a High Tea in the lavish Tiffin Room.

This was my first visit to Singapore but it certainly won't be my last. The country is spotlessly clean, the transport is easy to navigate (even for someone like me, who was once told he couldn't find his way out of a paper bag) and the shopping malls are fantastic for those wanting to shop, shop, shop.

The Garden - twelve months on

As promised, here is an apdated picture of the garden I designed and built shortly after arriving in Australia last year.

Life begins at Forty!

Hobart

My life has officially started now that I've reached 40. Not wanting to let this birthday just pass by like many others I decided to celebrate by spending five days holiday on the beautiful island of Tasmania.

Those of you that know me well are aware that I have a passion for boating and yachting. On my birthday Taras and I were in Hobart, the state capital of Tasmania. We didn't know at the time of booking that the Australian Wooden Boat Festival was taking place. It was a brilliant day and we both had a great day. Below are a few pictures of the beautiful boats we saw.







Hell Hole to Haven



The picture above looks like an idyllic place to enjoy a short break, visit a museum or relax in one of the coffee shops. Between 1833 and 1877 the 'visitors' would have viewed this place as being hell on earth. Now a major tourist attraction Port Arthur was once a penal colony.

The British prison system was so overwhelmed that an alternative was sought and the solution was transportation to Australia for some of the most hardened criminals. After 1853, Women and even boys as young as nine were transported here for the crime of stealing apples and handkerchiefs. The men and boys were put to hard labour logging and cutting stone for the ongoing building at the site.



Above are some of the gardens at the site.



One of the two churches at Port Arthur

Alan's nemesis, aka the basement flat!

Ok, so what has kept me so busy that I haven't updated my blog since June? Well, the biggest thing that has happened is the purchase of a house in Campbelltown, which is in one of Sydney's southwestern suburbs. The house is a large 5 bedroom property with separate granny flat in the basement. The house hasn't been well looked after and I imagine it's been 30 plus years since any major work was carried out. Nonetheless, we saw great potential and, in the space of 12 to 15 months, we hope to totally renovate and modernise the property in order to sell it again

The basement has been our first project as we've had a lodger waiting in the wings to move in there.

Below are a few 'before and after' pictures of the flat.



The biggest problem faced with renovating the flat was the poor condition of the floor. The house has, at some point, suffered from subsidence and this has cracked the concrete floor and left it very uneven. After consulting several concreting specialists and being told we would need to dig out the concrete and re-lay it with numerous tons of the stuff with no guarantee it wouldn't crack again, I came up with the idea of installing a floating floor. The frame for the sub-floor is shown in the picture above. The floor levelling and tiling took about six weeks in total but the results have been well worth it.



The picture opposite shows the previous kitchen, which consisted of a sink and a cupboard. The picture on the right is the new kitchen that has been installed.



This is the kitchen and dining area.

Below is the bedroom area of the flat with the bathroom and shower room doors just visible on the left. The whole flat was originally painted in blue although I didn't take pictures until after I had painted the walls. The floor has been laid with wooden parquetry tiling and this was surprisingly easy to lay.









This is the shower room. I have no 'before' pictures. The shower was untiled and was just painted concrete walls and floor.





The above picture is the bathroom. Again, I have no 'before' pictures of this room. Originally this was the laundry room for the house and it had a laundry sink and toilet and presumably a washing machine also lived in here. Where the current window is was originally a door leading to the outside of the flat. We sealed this off and made it into an enclosed bathroom with access from the bedroom only.



This is the lounge area.

The flat was a huge project and now that it's finished I'm looking forward to a week off for Christmas before starting on the next project.

UK visit

The Wedding
I've recently returned from the UK where I had a great three weeks with my family and friends. The weather was awesome nearly every day; blue skies, sunshine and temperatures in the late 20ºc's and even reaching 30ºc on the day of the wedding.
Here are a few pictures of the wedding;






Lincoln

The day after the wedding I drove, with Taras, to take Martin's two children, Callum and Lois, back to Lincoln. On the journey there I was involved in a minor car accident (car drove into the back of me - not my fault!) which brought on a bout of sciatica, which I'm still suffering from a month later!
While in Lincoln I arranged to meet my best friend, Jonathan, for lunch there before staying overnight nearby.
The earliest origins of Lincoln have been dated back to the Iron age. In 48 AD the Romans conquered this part of Britain and named it Colonia Domitiana Lindum, this was later changed to 'Lincoln' by the Anglo-Saxons.
Below are pictures of a local street and the magnificent Cathedral.





The Eden Project

After staying the night in Lincoln, and paying Taras' relatives in Loughborough a visit, we headed down to Torquay which was our base for the remainder of our visit.
For my Mum's birthday we visited the Eden Project in St Austell, Cornwall. The project is built in an old china clay quarry and was as one of the landmark millenium projects for the year 2000. Today, the project is a charity aimed at educating us on our dependence on the natural world. It shows how we are slowly destroying our planet and, with minor changes, we can each make a huge difference. If that sounds boring, and I assure you it isn't, go along just for the sheer beauty of the place and see why we must change our habits.
There are two huge interconnecting biomes (conservatories), one housing a tropical rainforest with fauna and flora from Malaysia, West Africa and South America. In different parts of the biome the temperature ranges from 18ºc to 35ºc with humidity of 90%. To give you some idea of the size of the biome the tallest tree inside it is 30 metres tall and was grown from seed!! The other biome houses a mediterranean collection of plants and is a more comfortable 25ºc.









A great day was had by all and we finished the day off by going out for a meal overlooking the harbour in Torquay

Torquay

We had many trips out during our few weeks in the UK. Here are just a few pictures of places we visited around Torquay.



Above is a thatched cottage in Cockington Village and below is the Manor House in the Village, Cockington Court.



Parts of the current Manor date back to 1375 although a manor has existed on this site since 1130. The village is set in 460 acres of beautiful park and woodland. Today, the Manor is home to several craft shops and the restaurant here does amazing Devonshire cream teas!

Below is a pictures of Thatcher's Rock, one of several rocks or islands off this part of the coast. Stunningly beautiful!



Dartmoor

Dartmoor is one of my favourite places to visit while in Devon. Dartmoor is a National Park covering some 954 square kilometres (368sq miles). The moorland is topped with many exposed granite hilltops, or tors, as they are known. It is a beautiful place to go for a walk and the area is rich in archeology.
We found a new part of the moor to discover this visit, the area is known as Fingle's Bridge. As it was so warm and sunny children and dogs were happily splashing around in the stream by the bridge while parents were content to enjoy a pint of proper ale and a pub lunch or cream tea.

Meet King Ogorod

I realise it's been a long time since I last posted a blog so I thought it about time I sat down and updated it.
Ok, so what have I been doing since I got here apart from enjoying the aussie lifestyle, going to the beach and generally having a great time? As some of you will be aware I qualified as a garden designer shortly before leaving the UK and this is hopefully going to be a full-time job for me. I have set up a garden design business called 'Thyme To Design'. A website is kindly being written for me by Xenia, Taras' sister. I'll put a link here once it's up and running.
So far I've only had the one design job, my other jobs consisting mainly of garden maintenance. I've had a few enquiries, including one from my dentist, but no firm commissions as yet. I also sponsored a film festival in Sydney in February/March offering a garden design. This was given as 2nd prize but, as yet, no one has claimed it!
I've had the privilege of designing the rear garden for Taras' parents and now that is nearly completed, I need to go back to the drawing board and come up with some wow-factor designs for the front garden.
Below are just a couple of pictures showing 'now' and 'before'. Double-click on the pictures to make them larger.





My main brief for the rear garden was it had to be low maintenance and have raised vegetable beds. The raised L-shaped beds currently have Brussel sprouts, cauliflower, dwarf peas, snow peas, celery, cabbage, broccoli, strawberries and rosemary. The garden isn't yet complete as it doesn't have the all important 'thyme'. No garden I design will be truly finished without my signature plant, thyme! Also growing in the garden are three types of fig tree, a mango, kiwi, lemon tree and blueberries.
In the inside corner of each bed there is seating made from vertical slices of a red gum tree supported on stumps from a tree we had to chop down from the front garden. It looks great, very rustic and very much in keeping with much of the decor of the house. The raised beds are set in an oval shaped gravel bed inter-planted with sculptural plants such as flap-jacks, ponytail palm, agaves and ornamental grasses. Over the arches is growing honeysuckle, this being salvaged from the philistines next door who relentlessly ripped it out of the ground and put it in their green bin. In spite of this harsh treatment all four plants are flourishing and will soon provide a beautiful scent when walking through the archways.
Ok, so why the blog title? Who is King Ogorod? Those with a keen eye may have noticed a dragon sitting in the centre of the garden overseeing all he rules. His name is Ogorod, which translated from Russian, simply means 'garden'. Ogorod is a water feature with a difference. Once night falls Ogorod magically lights up the overhanging trees above and smoke bubbles over his cauldron. I'll publish a photo of this soon, apologies for not taking one yet!!
In about six months I'll post more pictures of this garden as it will be interesting to see how the plants have matured.
It's not long now until I'm back in the UK for a brief visit. I land on 18th May and will be departing on 8th June. If anyone wants to catch up, let me know in advance so plans can be made.