‘I see the world with rosy coloured glasses’
people walk into our lounge room and assume the floor is stone
it isn’t.
it is mud,
earth.
it is clay and water mixed together just like those ploppy mud pies we loved to make as kids.
wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of the slush was wheeled in and dumped .
months went by and the floor dried leaving cracks running higgedly and piggedly in all directions
which a more liquid mud filled in.
that is not the only way to do it you know.
John’s friends came down from Newcastle to lend a hand and see what had drawn their mate away from their world.
they thought he was mad but loved him anyway and got in with backs and shovels
making a “mud !!! you have got to be kidding floor”.
some rounds of tree were sunk in at one end of the lounge room
just because you can when you work with mud
like bottles in your wall perhaps.
it was finished with a mix of turps , linseed oil and beeswax
which preserves it and gives it a shine that brings out the varying colours of the earth.
golden wax has filled in some of the frets over the years.
there is something deeply primal and sensual about our floors.
the house is known as a passive design system
using the elements
working it all together
to provide cool in summer and warm in winter.
it made sense
it still makes sense.
and besides that,
it is rugged
bending to the diverse wishes of all of us.
the real estate guy came out a few years ago for a valuation involving one of many tussles
with exs and partners who wanted blood.
he called it a rustic cottage,
at the time I was offended
it is so not a cottage, I spluttered
it’s a castle,
a grand affair of earth and stained glass
of verandahs opening into each of the directions
blurring the lines between inside and outside.
some people obviously don’t see what I see
some see the webs, the dust, the fret of mud and scat of lizard .
some see the absence of laminated surfaces and cupboard doors.
I see an evolving situation,
a magnificent space fully alive and breathing
a place of play and nurturing.
but then John has always said that I see the world with rosy coloured glasses.
the faerie embassy 