Flame Trees

If you are of a certain age you will remember the Cold Chisel song "Flame Trees" which I admit is one of my favourites. In fact I love it so much I got my significant other to buy an Illawarra Flame Tree (from which the song gets its name) and plant one here at GG central. We have called it Don Walker in honour of the man who wrote the song. see here and here's the clip on then singing the song.

anyway I am digressing which is my want!

Yesterday we heard on the radio about a project from the University of Wollongong who were entering a solar decathlon in  China of all places and the re-engineered house which was their entry was open for tours and talks about sustainable building, so we were down there in a shot!


here is the link to the house info but in the meantime here are some of our pics with some commentary from me.

the kitchen

The same Parker Lounge that we have at home!

This hydroponic garden is fertilised by a fish pond underneath

Loving the vertical herb garden just outside the kitchen

Another Parker beauty, dining setting, loving the fabrics on the chairs

Looking into the kitchen from the deck(next to vertical garden) really like the serving windows

it was a really interesting couple of hours, and I hope to let you know if they did well at the Solar Decathlon.

I'm living in the 70's ( well almost!)

Not taking my own advice, ( see previous blog) and having a drink in the Qantas Club before I fly off to the USA! Very excited as we got our requested upgrade ( thanks Qantas!) but that is not the topic under discussion today, I will save my travel exploits for another blog.

We have been frantically trying to get our house clean, tidy and bathroom renovated in the space of the last month, and those of you who have seen the chaos I have been residing in can realise what a mammoth undertaking this has been.


Well,


I am proud to announce that WE did it! The bathroom is done, bar painting, but very functional, the crap
 (read here really useful things we keep but not sure why) are in the shed in the backyard and we now have something resembling a lounge and dining room furnished with my finds on e-bay ( hence the 70's theme).

 I wanted to pay homage to the era the house was built in and it is funny that the 70's furniture is really the right size for the house, modern furniture seems to overcrowd it, but old  and lovely parker furniture fits just right!

take a look at my rooms!

Anyway I am going to fit in another champers before my flight is called, so will blog from sunny ( well sunnier than Sydney at present!) LA!