A Safe Arbour

We've discovered a completely different form of 'suspended animation'.

Ed and I, hanging out.

 Our property is bordered by a stand of native trees which we refer to, somewhat pretentiously, as 'the forest'. A haven for native birds, it is part of a bush corridor which extends from our land into the Tararua foothills.  During the day tui and fantails flit and kereru swoop though its many shadowed branches, while after nightfall it becomes an auditorium for moreporks enthusiastically engaged in their own distinctive form of social media.

Consisting mainly of native totaras and cabbage trees, deep within our own woodland is what we assume to be a rimu which has grown in a remarkably un-tree-like way. Four metres above the ground, the dappled trunk suddenly corners at 45 degrees and then levels out to form a solid horizontal beam, eventually terminating in branches which stretch skywards once again.

This unusual form is a mystery - perhaps the tree's destiny was shaped by a long-gone over-hanging branch, forcing it to elbow its own way out from underneath.  

The drawbacks of rope swings have been highlighted in the news this year, but I have to confess it was the first thing to cross my mind when we discovered this arboreal rafter. But as usual, my wife had a better idea - we were going to make a 'hanging bed'.

Rose's Your Weekend spread - describing how you can make your own hanging bed.

Essentially a slatted wooden bed frame complete with mattress and cushions, we suspend this arrangement from our tree's natural crossbar with a series of ropes connected to each corner. Perching on one end with your feet dangling above the surrounding fern and bracken, you fall gently back and savour the softly rocking motion your manoeuvre has created.

So successfully relaxing is this structure that we defy anyone to remain awake longer than ten minutes without surrendering to its levitating embrace. A view of the forest canopy and patches of sky through the shading upper foliage is a supremely restful sight as your eye lazily traces the graceful contours of the limbs above, and before long the purring company of at least one of our cats is inevitable.

Older trees on either side form a natural chamber around you, and the weight of nature gently enfolds you like a blanket.  Eventually you'll open your eyes again to find that shadows from the leaves branches above you have shifted, indicating the passage of time while you've dozed.

We've recently had a couple of perfectly still, warm evenings, and have spent the night under the arched, protecting arm of our special tree. It's very special waking up in the cool early morning air to the dawn chorus and the first light of a new day glimmering through the overhead leaves and branches.  Obviously not a year-round activity, we intend to make the most of this while summer lasts.

Swiss Army Wife

You can't move around here for hammering and sawing most weekends, each month.  I live with a DIH expert - 'Does It Herself'.

The first NZ Gardener project, Dovecote by Rose, Doves by me...

At least a couple of weekends each month are becoming increasingly devoted to bouts of creativity and sometimes farcical photo shoots.

Paint and brushes are involved, but it's not me - it's my polymath spouse who this year became a regular columnist for New Zealand Gardener.  While I pedal my meagre scribblings for free she is commanding a double page colour spread in a glossy magazine each month.

Of course I'm thrilled for her, and constantly astonished by the meticulously constructed and elegantly realised carpentry projects which she appears to conjure into sturdy three dimensions directly from her mind.

I would still be drafting preliminary drawings while she is busy sawing-up lengths of timber and quickly forming the skeleton of a construction she can already vividly see in it's finished form.

If it's not obvious, this is a kind of magic to me.  I could draw you a mean dovecote or wood shelter, but probably never build one - certainly nothing so well-made and fitting so perfectly together as Rose can.

A seletion of 'Tool Belle' pages from Your Weekend

The process actually began a couple of years ago, when the Your Weekend magazine editor wanted to introduce a regular DIY column and, on the strength of articles I'd written about our recent house build, asked me if I was up to it. I had to admit that I wasn't, but I knew someone who was...

And so 'Tool Belle' was born, a two page column which ran every month for a couple of years, ending when Rose decided to bow out with a change of editors.  She felt that she'd done everything she could with Tool Belle, and the projects were taking up an increasing amount of time in the weekends and new ideas harder to come up with.

Some time afterwards, New Zealand Gardener got in touch.  Unlike Your Weekend this is a long-established monthly glossy magazine.  What drew Rose back, apart from slightly more money, was the emphasis on garden-based projects.

Like 50% of the Tool Belle articles, these projects are entirely sponsored by Resene, and so the final construction needs to be suitable for painting. They tend to be larger- scale, more complex carpentry-based assignments and so Rose has developed  relationship with the local timber merchants.

Each project has  'easy to follow' step-by-step instructions -
and most are photographed in our neighbour's beautiful (and sheltered) garden.

On accompanying her on these raw material purchasing missions, the timber yard assistants always used to direct their questions to me; dealing with a woman was somewhat outside their experience.  Those days are well and truly over now.    

In their interaction with what must appear to be a deluded, but determined, lady life-styler, their reaction who has gone from disbelief, to wry amusement, to eventual acceptance bordering on respect - now offering useful tips and recommending new tools for her to buy.

A winter planter, with chickens.

There's no doubt that these projects take up a lot of time, but I'd surmise that they are also very rewarding, and very practical.  The articles appear to be well-received as well, at least one reader having built a wood shelter for themselves.

Enough from me, here's a selection of wooden wonders (click to enlarge)...