Rear Window

When we moved here 10 years ago, we paid a man quite a lot of money to do some building designs for us. His ideas came to very little in the end - a quirky proposal that did eventually emerge was dismissed out-of-hand by the planning authority. At that stage we were naive and credulous in our understanding of how the home improvement game works. But you have to learn lessons somehow and, eventually, we built something that is arguably more off-beat than Mr Quirky's original proposals

Earlier this week, we went to a (very good, scientifically robust) presentation by an eco-builder who has broken out of the beard-and-sandals (his description) mould and created a large, commercial company that creates buildings using low-embodied-carbon, natural materials (tick), making extensive use of lime rather than cement (tick), insulating with an almost-magic hemp-lime composite (tick), and using the power generated from PV panels in a hierarchy of uses, to maximise on-site consumption (tick). MrsM said on the way home that we should feel very smug

So maybe Mr Quirky's fee was not entirely wasted. I also remember him waxing lyrical about windows: the fact that, when you walk around a house, you glance through the windows you pass, and how important it is that those vistas are interesting and mood-enhancing. The kitchen-living room we eventually built has French-windows on to the garden, five more windows, three roof-lights and a large window in the door - so perhaps his influence endured

The older parts of our house have windows facing in two different directions in every room (excluding bathrooms), the hall and landing - and I enjoy the view through all of them. I don't remember being conscious of that when we bought the place, but perhaps it was a sub-conscious effect that triggered the 'yes, this one' decision

This is one of those windows, of course. I spent much of today in this room, painting a wall and two other window-sills before this one, so appreciated the outlooks. I tried to get a reflection of the Forsythia in the wet paint (it wiill never be that shiny again), but the angles are all wrong, so this is a reflection of grey sky in grey paint. Somewhere behind all that cloud, the sun is setting

Beware! Tomorrow is the Ides!