shelter shed gets new floor

Last week while we were at David's tennis wind-up at Middleton,  the concreter laid a new floor in the shelter shed and fish hut. It did have a rough stone and concrete floor which we got the footie boys to jack-hammer out and it's been sand till now. The old beach shelter roof makes a decking bridge between the bush hut and shelter shed with lawn laid by David on Thursday... Have I lost everyone with all these outbuildings?

 

You're looking at the shelter shed, virtually untouched, with the wood heater from inside the house in its rusty and rustic glory.

Taken from the bush hut

The Sprat had another outing and David caught 13 garfish.

 

the launching of The Sprat

Mother's Day was a magical day at Beechwood. The sun shone brightly if not warmly and David was lured into launching his tinnie The Sprat for the first time. It was harder than he expected to haul it down to the water so now he's planning some wheels to help.

 

 

Once it was 50 metres out on the sea some bailing was required  in between coaxing the garfish to bite  - but he was far too busy and happy to come ashore to greet Alison and Christopher who arrived with pink iced buns for morning tea. At the turn of the tide the fish stopped biting and he returned with seven nice garfish.

 

 

 

Meanwhile Daisy and I  were at work on our net at the top of the stairs where we will hang objets trouves from the beach (all found objects except for the little sea pictures which Rachel and Ben gave us.)

Very soon a problem appeared: Willow thought the net was for her to climb on and all the dangly objects were her playthings. So we had to hang most things up high.

 

a stormy weekend

At one stage I thought the house might blow away as the wind howled and the rain belted down horizontally. The new back door is leaking profusely - not up to the stormy conditions but the new sliding door and upstairs window are performing well. The good news is that the two new large rainwater tanks are almost full. 

It's fascinating to sit in the Lookout Room and watch the many birds fly by: seagulls seem to love the rough weather as they float and swoop like bits of dirty tissue paper,  pacific gulls and blue herons are more determined as they fight against it while flights of chestnut teal flap madly to get wherever they're going. And then they come back again. One stately pelican has sailed by, not many little birds - too much for them - except for the blue wrens who dart around in the comparative shelter of Henrietta"s Hill. The musk duck seem to swim, not fly. Willow has taken refuge inside David's jumper, he's even better than a hot water bottle.

Only inside jobs can be done today including hanging David's photos of orange-bellied parrots. This is the sitting room which used to be a bedroom - can't call it a lounge because it's impossible to lounge in these chairs. 

princess of Beechwood

We have our new kitten - Willow,  aged 11 weeks and a female  lilac Burmese. She is having to cope with two different houses and two different positions for the all-important litter tray but so far so good.

Warmth is also important so I kept her kittycave supplied with hotwater  bottles during the day - strange how hard hotwater bottles are to find these days and I had to order them from a pharmacy. Nights are a different story and she took to the Burmese birthright  of sleeping in a human bed.

Willow on her lookout in the Lookout Room

Fishing update: very little has been done since we came back from our cruise.
The weather has been windy but mostly David has been too busy doing things around the house and garden - even though he has bought a tinnie called The Sprat with oars only which he plans to row 50 metres out for some fishing.
But last Sunday he and Rory in waders went gar fishing  off Rory's house and caught six each.

House update: all has gone quiet since before Easter as the builder is working on another project. We're nearly finished, probably 90% finished, but I'm not publishing any pictures yet as every view has something in it not completed. The main thing is we can now sleep there: we have beds, hot water, plumbing and electricity, still no rainwater - it will be nice if it rains this week and fills the two big tanks then maybe we can stop carrying down cask water for cups of tea.
 

 

a visiting cat

Jon brought his cat Zara for Easter: she likes Foote Street but is not at all happy about Beechwood.  Typically Burmese - though no relation to Henrietta - she finally found a nice spot for a sleep on a bed. 

instant lawn

We collected 30 rolls of Sir Walter buffalo grass turf from Masters yesterday morning and the turf-laying team of Jon, Daisy, ChrisB and David covered the area with top-soil then turf. It's a grubby job, hard on shoes and we are grateful.

Keeping sand under control and out of the house is a constant battle and finding good big coir door mats is so far impossible: those with rubber backs are no good on decking as they concentrate the water in one spot. 

first night in the renovations

We worked all day, cleaning, hanging pictures and getting ready for our visitors - the pinot and pizza group plus Jon, except that it was burgers. David assembled the 8 chairs and table which I had ordered online and amazingly they fitted together beautifully and look great. We've resurrected our old cane lounge suite for the sitting room and Di Cameron has re-covered it so it matches everything else. Heather understands about matching and that we've got a green theme going  so she brought Frank's white wine with green label and granny smith apples.