Inside walls painted....and progress in the garden

After a record amount of rain in June, we had a week of wonderful sunshine last week.  Cold nights and cool days, but blissfully sunny!  And we made the most of it too.  On Monday Peter, Nathan and I undercoated the interior walls of the studio (which we call 'The Cubby' because our neighbours and my brother have agreed looks just like a large cubby house).  On Tuesday Peter and I did the first coat of colour and on Wednesday we did the second coat.  It is a pale yellow, chosen because it is fresh and light.  We used the same paint we used in our bedroom.  I keep trying to take a photo but it keeps coming out white!

Today my brother and his oldest son came to help Peter put the ceiling up.  Peter and I were outside early this morning painting the sheets of plywood with undercoat - it will make it easier when it comes to paint the ceiling.  We got half done, so I don't know when we'll get to finish it.

Out of interest I googled the effect of colour on us.  Here is what I found about yellow (this was after I had chosen it by the way).
It says:'Yellow is a cheerful and uplifting colour.  It symbolized wisdom and means joy and happiness.  Yellow is full of creative and intellectual energy, therefore it helps to memorize and recall, think clearly, make decisions and come up with new ideas - that is why you should always use yellow notepads.  It also encourages optimistic attitude and helps to build self-confidence'.

Wow! That sounds perfect for a creative space like a studio, doesn't it?  Note to self: buy a stack of yellow notepads ;)

I want to have touches of blue in the studio (blue is my favourite colour and I love yellow and blue together). Here's what I found about blue:
'Blue is the calming colour.  It represents the night and makes us feel calm and relaxed.  Lighter and softer blues make us feel quiet and protected.  blue inspired creativity, clarity and mental control. Light and dark blue combined, help to convey trust and trustfulness.  Blue is also believed to help memorizing information - use blue paper for writing down speeches or other information you need to know by heart.'

I love the crispness of white to accent the yellow and blue, and plan to have all the woodwork in white for the shelves and trim around windows and door.
' White brings peace and comfort'.

The exterior will be done in a light grey, with a darker grey called 'Bilby' for the trim, and white for the windows.
'Grey is often associated with independence, self-reliance, self-control and self-criticism.  It relates to isolating yourself from everything, remaining separate, uncommitted and uninvolved.  Grey may lead to loneliness.  Also grey can have a cooling effect when placed next to more vibrant colours.  It can make the vibrant colours stand out whilte muting their vibration. Grey evokes authority, practicality and corporate mentality.'

Hmmm.  well, the independence, self-reliance and self-criticism part certainly applies.  The isolation part also applies - The cubby is somewhere I can go and be to create and build away from the hassles of the house.  I certainly won't be lonely because my menfolk will find their way up there, that's for sure ;)  I chose grey because I want it to be cool - our summer sun is pretty fierce in Sydney even though The cubby is on the south side of the house and not on the sunny north side.  I'm doing my best to make it as cool as possible for the summer whilst getting as much sun and light as I can during winter by facing it north and having a deciduous tree on the west.

My favourite colour nowadays for woodwork is a light to mid brown.  Sort of honey coloured.
'Brown is the colour of our mother earth.  Brown can alleviate insecurities and bring a sense of stability and comfort.'

I don't have the luxury of buying new furniture and fittings for the studio but anyway I have lots of second hand stuff that is perfectly fine, it just needs re-purposing to make it suitable and fresh looking. I have been planning on stripping back an old table I've been given and staining it in this honey brown.  I also have a well-loved old desk that Peter and I rescued from the city in the early 60's when his mother's office was getting rid of some furniture.  We stripped it back then and stained it walnut and it served me well all through high school and my first stint at university.  Now it will be stripped back once again and re-stained this lighter colour.  I have also been given two large desks with returns (detachable) from a deceased estate.  they are finished in a walnut laminate and I am looking to find a lighter laminate to re-do the tops and will paint the body of the desks in white.

But before I can get moving on doing the restoration of this furniture I have to let the menfolk put the ceiling up in the studio so they have room to move.  This happened today (Sunday) when my brother was available again to help Peter do it.  He also brought his oldest son Paul to help. He will also assist in hanging the door and installing the windows in the front wall.  Then we can get the glass for the windows and Peter will glaze the windows.

In the meantime I have been moving forward with the garden as well.  Some treated pine railway sleepers have been placed in their approximate positions ready to be partly dug into the soil to hold them in place.  We filled most of the area so marked out with soil and I have planted some shrubs.  Three large concrete tubs are raised on a couple of courses of bricks to raise them to the level of the soil.  Here's a view of the garden on the left front of the verandah - it should look nice once the building rubble is cleared away and the plants have recovered from the shock of being put into the soil and bushed out a bit.

 The largest of the three tubs has a lavender 'Sidonie' in it. This is a small-growing lavender that produces tall, elegant, rich violet-blue flowers all year round, intensifying in the colder months.  It is supposed to be 'a fast growing shrub surrounded by soft leathery foliage to a height of 80 cm' so will fill the pot really well.  For now I have put some pretty white violas around the edge of the tub to fill it up a bit.

 The smallest of the tubs has three burgundy-coloured dianthus plants in it.  They smell gorgeous!  As we walked past them in the nursery the smell was enchanting.  I hope it wafts in through the windows, along with the lavender.

 To give further contrast in growing habit and foliage shape I chose some Diascia for the medium pot. We have this growing in a large pot at the front of the house and it cascades beautifully over the sides of the pot and just keeps flowering and flowering even though it gets the full force of the sun all day long in summer.  I just cut it back when it looks a bit too weedy and off it goes again.  I have three plants in this pot and I think I managed to choose a medium to dark pink, a white and a light pink but I'm not absolutely sure of the colour of the third one.  It will be a nice surprise when it blooms :)  These plants have pea-shaped flowers, which are one of my favourites.

In front of the pots, in the corner is a fan flower.  The label has disappeared and I can't remember what it's name is. This little shrub will fill the space nicely.  The sun washed out the colour a bit - it is a nice dark mauve, nearly a light purple.

Beside that is a Federation daisy that blooms with lovely pink double daisies in spring and all through summer and into autumn given the right care.  Planting this from the pot it has been in for the last four years broke some bits off it and we dipped those into honey and stuck them into another small pot as cuttings.  Hope some at least take.  At the moment this poor bush looks rather sad and folorn, I hope it picks up soon!

Further to the left, at the corner of the garden is another lavender.  This one is the same as one I have out in the front garden so it will probably grow around a metre high and spread for about a metre too. I hope will enjoy this position and grow into a lovely  bush.  I love the smell of the flowers.

Then I have another Federation Daisy called 'Crazy Daisy' pink.  Federation daisies are an improved version of the Marguerite daisy, and are usually smaller and give improved performance in our Australian conditions.  I love them.

Behind this  and tucked in front of the battered old wheelbarrow is a Myoporoides 'Winter Rose'.  This is a small growing native (to 80cm).  It flowers for a long period of time from winter through spring.  an abundance of deep pink buds opening to reveal a pink star-shaped flower which fades to white.  It is covered in buds so hopefully they will open soon.  I love star-shaped flowers too.  In fact you will notice that all the plants I have chosen for the gardens are among my favourites.

The annuals in the wheelbarrow have survived the torrential rain we've had for weeks and have coped with having the shade cloth removed.  Lots of them have come into bloom in the last week since they were planted. The alyssum seed that I sprinkled over the surface is even coming up everywhere so I am hoping that I'll be able to prick some of it out and transplant it when it is larger.

Behind the wheelbarrow and along the side wall of the cubby I have a small Buddlea to plant.  It is a dwarf variety.  I've never seen a dwarf variety before and it is perfect for the space.  Then I have this lovely camellia to go in.  The position will suit it, I think.  It will be protected from the westerly sun but will get the morning sun - just like the faithful one that blooms year after year in our front side garden.  I fell in love with it's drooping growth habit.  It's called 'Little Gem' which suggests that it might not be a big tree when mature, but it doesn't matter what size it is.

It was hard to get a proper photo of it because the sun kept washing it out but here is a closeup of some of the flowers - aren't they just gorgeous?

As well as those two plants I have a flowering fruit tree - I think it's a plum but can't remember.  I do know that I want to get it into the soil soon because it is bare rooted and we've had it for a week.  But I'd better get the wall on that side painted first!

On the other side, the right side of the verandah,  I have also put the railway sleepers to mark out the bed but they too still need to be settled into place.  Here you can see the struggling violet bed, mulched with sugarcane mulch on one side.  One of my fairy statues is sitting where I can see her from the verandah.  The poor old bird bath is looking rather manky after the rain, it needs a good clean out.  I'll have to place it on a couple of bricks to provide a stable basis for it because it has gone off level again.

Here is the rear of the same side of the violet garden, with my other fairy figurine.  It says 'There are fairies at the bottom of my garden'.  I've left it clear of mulch where the violets are planted so they can get the runners into the ground - yes, they are there even though you can't see them clearly in the photo.

The rest of this bed is still lacking soil because I am thinking of making a small frog pond there.  But that will take some time to get into gear.

So now I've raved on heaps (again) - hope it's not too boring.  Can you tell I'm excited?