Sometime I just sit and enjoy
It is 11am and I have just stopped for a coffee and a piece of fruit. I decided go outdoors on my terrace and soak up the sun while is early in the day and I can get Vitamin D and warmth without getting skin cancer in the middle of the day.
It was a lovely break! Yesterday was hot and very windy then overnight a front came though with quite good rain and the world looks so clean.
This morning the rain stopped while I walked to my gym and stayed away until I returned then gave another burst. At present the sky is blue, the sun is out, the bees are busy around my lemon tree which is in flower and there ware birds investigating the potted garden and using the birdbath. I truly enjoyed sitting in the fresh air and watching the world.
I moved to an apartment about 2 years ago and I live two storeys up with another six above me but I have a 6metre x 8metre terrace and I have filled it with a potted garden – some fruit trees, some vegetables and herbs as well as lovely ornamentals like a frangipani tree I have had in a pot for around six years and potted roses. Most of my plants are very drought and heat tolerant and those that were not did not make it through last summer. Most of them are favourites that I have had in my last 3 houses but they have grown some.
Initially I was concerned about how I would cope with the reduced space but it is a large apartment and the terrace garden actually gives me a better feeling of space than my previous house because of the borrowed landscape I can see from 2 floors up. The old house felt buried in the suburbs. The apartment is within easy walking distance of the city centre across a park and it is very well insulated so I use minimal heating and cooling. I added a verandah over my north facing windows to give me some dry outdoor space but also to keep out the summer sun while letting winter sun stream in.
With the verandah and two large café umbrellas to give me privacy from above, I have an idyllic space complete with a sand pit and totem tennis for grandchildren. I love apartment living and it is very energy efficient.
My only regret is my dream of having a totally eco house that retains all its own water and makes all its own power. To find this so close to the edge of the city, close to family and with a view, is so unlikely that I guess I will settle happily for the apartment and terrace and work on the Strata Corporation to allow us to have solar panels.
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