Pissing Around Around The House

Someone said Melbourne was having bi-polar weather today, which was essentially true. One moment it was sunny, the next moment it was pouring with rain and then a moment later it was sunny again. That persisted all morning and into the afternoon, on the hour, every hour.

And all I wanted to do was seal my new terracotta pot, which I cleaned yesterday and it is already for its coats of sealer. Many people don’t realise that terracotta pots need to be sealed. It wasn’t new as in bought from the shop, oh no, someone down the street put it out on the footpath so someone else would take it away, so I did. I never know why people do that with terracotta pots? As far as I’m concerned, I can never have too many terracotta pots. If you don’t know what to do with a terracotta pot, then you lack the very basics of imagination.

I love the tradition of repainting your outdoor furniture at the beginning of summer. Traditionally, you either got a pot of Brunswick Green stain, or Jarrah Red, and you’d freshen up the outdoor setting/s in time for the new summer season.

While my mother’s mother, the property developer, never had so much time for such a tradition, she did have green outdoor furniture, and my father’s mother, the drunk, was too busy getting the brandy into her, and lighting her Kool cigarettes, to have any nice things, I did have relatives who did indulge in the tradition, if it is a tradition. Maintenance, I guess it is called maintenance. My favourite relative, my great aunt, had Brunswick Green, as did an aunt with a country house in Healesville. 

My immediate family always used Jarrah Red, so that is what I did in the afternoon, after I had sealed my terracotta pots, I repainted my outdoor furniture with a fresh coat of, this year it was, merbau brown. It is close enough in colour. My one garden bench, that is. It looks nice too. And tomorrow both the pot and the garden bench will get a second coat, and then we are ready for summer.