House Pictures from Portugal

We're recently back from a short holiday in the Algarve, in Portugal. I spent a good bit of the time there, when I wasn't reading or zoning out, rubbernecking at the architecture and design. I was fascinated by the houses; all steps and softened corners and white and tiles. I think there must be a strong remnant of Moorish influences, because really, they're like nothing I've seen anywhere else in the West. Here are a few pictures, which I'm keeping for inspiration.

This one I like because of the sprawl of balconies and roofs and chimneys. Note also the solar panels - we saw a lot of those, often on houses that were quite old, and on modern apartments and the like as well. The level of greenery was unexpected - there had just been a three week spell of cloud and rain, and it showed.


These outside steps are typical of the houses - built as integrated parts of the structure, decorated with tiles and arches and small details of paintwork. All this is facing the Atlantic coast, and in the blazing sunshine, the white walls are almost blinding. My prescription sunglasses usually give a sepia tint to things in Ireland, but confronted with this light, all they could do was dull it enough to let me escape without a headache.


And this house was just over the hill from the hotel we were staying in. I love the combination of round and angular structures, the way in which it combines wall and roof and stairs to form one frontispiece, and the organic look of the whole thing. The picture doesn't quite do it justice, unfortunately, but as with many other buildings here, it was impossible to find a place from which you could take a single picture that showed the whole building - there were always details out of sight, or trees blocking the view. In some ways, that was part of the charm of the buildings; there were always new details to be found.

(All pictures by my wife, whose camera skills trump mine every time)

Plant Life

My mother-in-law has brought us some roses from my wife's grandmother's house. These are actual plantable roses, I hasten to add, and are now planted in the back garden, equidistant from the tool shed and the Experimental Potato bed. They look to be settling in nicely. This inheritance-style arrival of plants is something I like greatly, although I'm going to have to consider carefully my brother's offer of a small oak tree, since, like oaks anywhere, it won't remain small. Nonetheless, with a few more inherited plants, a few foundlings and volunteers, and the usual selection of planted and bought ones, we should have a nicely eclectic selection in a few years time.

The Experimental Potatoes are also doing nicely, and the rain washed away a little soil in the bed; enough to reveal a large-marble-sized new potato. I reburied it, rather than carry it off, which I think shows great self-control. The spring onions in the bed beside them are not showing any great level of growing, though; there are half a dozen now starting to look properly like onions, and no more. Since the seeds were a freebie with a magazine, I'm a little more inclined to blame those than anything else - especially since the courgettes, from the same pack of free seeds, have thus far produced only one viable plant from about twenty sown. Although I gather that if that plant gets going, it may well supply our courgette needs all on its own. To be fair, I suppose, the onions should perhaps be someplace a bit sunnier - there's more shade from the trees in the western hedgerow than I expected.

There has also been the discovery of some climbing roses by a fence near the back of the garden. At least, we think they're climbing roses. For my level of knowledge of garden flowers, they could be anything. Something leaning in from a neighbour's garden at the front of the house has big pink flowers, and some brambles in the hedgerow have flowers, leading me to hope for blackberries in the autumn. I'm wondering if it's possible to encourage blackberry brambles in any useful way, should that be what they are.

Rain

It poured rain here for much the afternoon (I was in work, but I'm assured it rained even where I wasn't) and on into the evening, only stopping half an hour ago. This is the first time we've seen serious rain in the new place, so I've been out poking around to see what the effects are. First and foremost, of course, unlike the rented house we were in last, no parts of this one leak.

Second, neither of the sheds leak noticeably, not even the full-of-holes one that's in the main part of the garden. This is welcome news, and means that it'll get a coat of paint later in the summer, and some patching up, rather than the complete removal I had considered.

The clayish soil is showing itself, though. There's one point where there's a dip in the ground, with slightly hardened soil. The rain water is pooled in it, showing no signs of draining away, and I suspect that the soil is holding a lot of water as well. It doesn't look like it's going to be a problem as such, but it's another argument in favour of raised beds, I think.

Courgettes Planted

Well, the courgette seeds are in the ground. I'd take a picture, but really, it doesn't look any different yet, apart from being a bit darker from the compost that's dug through it. I also have my computer set up again, in one of the rooms that faces onto the back garden, so if any of the plants suddenly decide to head for the sky, Beanstalk style, I'll know immediately. More usefully, I can keep an eye out for neighbourhood cats going digging.

In the other, smaller bed, the experimental potatoes are starting to leaf properly, and the spring onions are just barely coming up. I was about to pull out what look like some very un-onion-like little double leaves, but then remembered secondary school science telling me that all plants start off with those two little round leaves. So I'll leave them until they turn into onions or something else before they come out or stay in. The recognisable onions have very thin stalks (leaves?), some of which have odd angles in them, or fall over at the ends. I'm not sure if that's expected, or if they want more water - but considering the rain yesterday and some of today, I can't think they could. There'll be pictures of them when there's enough there to pick out from the background.

Man at Work

So, this courgette bed still hasn't been planted, because we've been busy with moving stuff. I'm hopeful of getting to it this evening, because otherwise it'll be Monday. We've a guest coming to stay, though, so unless he's entertained by watching me fork over clayish soil and dig compost in before I plant, they may just have to wait.

Here are some pictures of the progress so far, though. This is the area where I want to put in three beds, roughly clipped with a shears:



And this is me, digging like mad:



And this is me again, contemplating the cleared bed:



(Pictures by Sorcha O'Brien)

It has since been forked over initially, and while the soil there is slightly more clay-ish than I'd really like, I think some compost will open it up. It's certainly nice and easy to dig, and there are few stones, no bits of glass or metal, and no roots worth speaking of.

I'm planning to do something about edging, or maybe putting some paving stones or something between the beds - to neaten up the look of it, if nothing else. If I'm planting more in this area, it'll be to the left on the first picture. The long term plan involves some small buildings there - a sauna and some decking - so I don't want to put anything too permanent in. Fruit bushes are a possiblity, fruit trees are probably not.

Courgettes, Squashes & Pumpkins

I was talking to an Australian friend yesterday about growing courgettes and pumpkins. I remarked that I'd had trouble getting pumpkins to actually fruit when I've tried to grow them before, until I pinched out the growing tip. Apparently, in warmer climates like Australia, you don't need to do this. I did some digging around on the 'net today, and found an excellent guide to growing gourds on garden-centre.org. And pinching out the the tip when the vine hits about 60cm is definitely recommended.

I cleared ground to plant courgettes on Sunday, and if all goes to plan, I'll be planting the seeds this evening. I might look for a few ornamental pumpkins to go in around the edges of that plot, too, more for fun than for real eating.

Antique & Vintage Furniture

According to an article in the San Francisco Chronicle, antiques are out of style in the US (thanks to Claris of Talk to the Clouds for the tip). This is something I'd be happy with myself, as I like antiques and have no regard for style in furniture beyond my own taste. There's one line that's particularly interesting, though:

"The '40s, '50s, '60s and '70s is the hottest market going right now," said Jerry Goldman, of the monthly Alameda Point Antiques and Collectibles Faire. "People are buying their childhood. Designers are snapping up the mid-Modern stuff."

That's very clear from any of the design sites I've been watching - the strange, streamlined shapes of the 60s and 70s are very much in vogue, along with colours that in many cases, I've only seen in photographs.

Yet there's another trend mixed in there that I haven't seen anyone draw attention to - wire. Birdcages, metal framework furniture, spindly lampshades, and so forth. Those, together with light colours, painted wood, and the flash-animation-derived patterning of fabrics, really comprise the look of the current era for me. And yes, it definitely looks 70s:

Kitchens

I've been poking across the web at various aspects of kitchens. There's a kitchen shelves post here by Holly of Haus Maus, which illustrates a concept she's looking at for her new kitchen in Germany.

There's also a set of scans of kitchens from an old issue of Marie Claire Maison from Automatism.

There are a few things in common between these - open storage being a big one. But I don't think it'd work for us; it's very easy for open shelved storage to get messy, and I suspect it means cleaning everything on a regular basis, even if it's just because of dust. I'd rather the dishes not get dusty.

There's also a lot of light in those designs, which is another argument for letting light in from the south side of the house to the kitchen. I expect the computer room door to be open a lot, which will let in some, but I'm going to have to look at the actual light fittings as well. The current ones are a set of three small directed shades, which aren't nearly bright enough as they are. I'm thinking spotlights pointed at the counter-tops and tables would be very useful.

Stairs

The way the front of the house is set up, the first thing you see stepping in the door is the stairs. That's all well and good, but it's rather dull, even with a set of bookshelves at the top.


Those bookshelves are now filled with books, of course - we've been moving books since we got the keys, since they're the largest single category of stuff we own. I've been looking for a few ideas on what we can do with the stairs. The first idea was from my wife, rather than me, and that was to put bookshelves up along the right-hand side. Busyboo has a very good example of staircase-with-bookshelves, (with a great idea about drawers in steps, too) but that's not going to work for us, at least not on both sides. And the staircase is already narrow, so shelves might reduce it too much. On the other hand, it'd look great, and it's not really a public-use staircase, being as the only room up there is the master bedroom. So as long as they were only one paperback deep, we might be ok.

There's plenty of advice out there as to what to do with the space under the stairs, but very little on what you can do with the stairs themselves. One of the long-term proposals is to put a porch on the front of the house, and remove the wall between the hall and sitting-room, and that would allow us to do a bit more with the steps themselves.

The stairs are carpetted at the minute. Ordinarily, I'm much more in favour of wooden steps, but in this case, they're quite steep, so the carpet allows a bit more grip for the feet. Finally, the dark wooden bannisters may need replacing with something a bit lighter in colour, or possibly even painting. I'm starting to be greatly in favour of painted wood; it reminds me of a lot of old country houses I saw as a kid.

Gervais Apartment

This practice of looking at design sites and magazines is actually changing the things I like. I've always gone, before, for darker colours, and Victorian/Edwardian looks. Now I find myself drifting toward lighter colours, Scandinavian lines, and an emphasis on natural light. This French apartment, for instance, looks fantastic, and I've spent some time trying to figure out what it is about it that appeals. The first three pictures on that article are the main attraction; the fourth less so. So it's definitely something to do with the light colours.

Second is the fact that none of it looks actually white. That seems to make a difference. There's a definite eclecticism about the furniture and wall items, which also appeals to me. And finally, you can see under a lot of the furniture, and while I wouldn't in a million years have thought of that as being an important aspect of room design, it definitely seems to be a common theme in these; it makes the rooms look a lot more open. Stuff to consider...