Decked

My very talented eldest drew this at school this other day on the back of a scrap of paper. It's a side elevation of the new house showing the new section on the left and the existing old house on the right. Although the new roof line differs a bit, I thought it was a gorgeous sketch even showing the patch of mint growing under the external tap on the old house!

Whilst I'm still sorting out boxes and still waiting for shelves to arrive from Bunnings the builders are now constructing the external decks.

But prior to this we had to pour the footings for the upright posts. The engineers had specified them to be super deep due to the alluvial sand. We actually hit a natural spring with 2 of the holes, which makes sense having to local creek so close in the golf course.

Anyway the footings were poured during our heatwave last week on the hottest day. One look at my builders sweating it out with the barrows and I decided to change into my gardening clothes and join them.

When I bought my wheel barrow I was smart enough to buy a manageable size for myself and not go too large, which paid off on this occasion as the cement truck driver was determined to test my strength with each barrow load.

For those readers not in this subtropical zone, here's the other way we know Summer has arrived- the absolutely glorious Poinciana trees in full flower everywhere.

My street is lined with them. This is one of my favourites due to it's prolific flowering. They truly are amazing and one of the best canopy trees I believe.