Discoveries

You all know, in order to help with the fire damage and everything, that  I have been yearning to find my pot of gold as we clean up the ashen mess

http://www.smh.com.au/money/diy-not-for-everybody-20121009-27a5i.html

Well, alas, it has not happened ... yet!  Despite the fact we have been meticulously lifting every floorboard

Even architect HH and  BB HH have been looking on my behalf (let me  assure you it is in their best interests to do so - especially so when I got their last invoices!) Their long term future depends on my finding that pot of gold!

But I should be happy because, despite not finding the pot of gold, I have discovered a few unexpected things.

There was the 1860s UK penny, no doubt left as a remnant by the Heath family who built the house and occupied it for 25 years until their return to the UK

Ok, this find was not enough to renovate a room on - but a lovely find nonetheless... And then, the first week in the house, remember I found the amazing old fountain in the garden which is sure to have a beautiful and heartfelt story behind it

But in breaking news we did stumble on something else quite amazing recently

Remember this beautiful top of the world space? My office to be?  And remember what the arsonist did to it in a few short hours

But the Phoenix is rising - well, more realistically, the builders and architects and engineers are rising

Carpenter Peter of  HH is upbeat too

And I know their look of excitement tells it all - but we are all a little bit thrilled we have found something special when all the fire rubble fell off

Does not this crew look a bit excited?

Well they should be because we found what is commonly known as a "widow's walk" or a "widow's Watch" - a section of flooring above the roof.

I have heard many stories of Captain Heath watching boats come up the Humbug Reach but I could not work out how he saw them.

Well now I know how he did - we used the widow's walk above his office probably!

Who knew that above that beautiful VJ ceiling lurked something special. Wilkapedia says (and they should know!)...

A widow's walk also known as a "widow's watch" (or roofwalk) is a railed rooftop platform often with a small enclosed cupola ...  A popular romantic myth holds that the platform was used to observe vessels at sea. The name is said to come from the wives of mariners, who would watch for their spouses' return, often in vain as the ocean took the lives of the mariners, leaving the women widows.^[1] In other coastal communities, the platforms were called Captain's Walk, as they topped the homes of the more successful captains; supposedly, ship owners and captains would use them to search the horizon for ships due in port.

This picture might be way too elegant but you get the idea - right

Carpenter HH will keep you posted on progress (and his side kick A!!) as we rebuild the HH widow's walk (and every little thing along the way!)

in other weekly news, the old "green lady" received a galvanised roof makeover

The white board articulated most of the major happenings the last week

The garden has seen a spurt of colour

The sunflowers have disappeared - remember them like this?

sorry to disappoint but this is them now! Sad, I know...

but in more encouraging news... has anyone noticed how beautiful our city is at present?

There's more news too - the sad wrought iron fire damaged posts are being sandbasted and now look like this!

  

And boards have arrived which will be used to become a fire wall (I know a little late - but better late than never!)

and the roof is on (as is the tarp!) Might not sound like a lot to you, but to me it is a major milestone!

Remember our recent Gatsby fundraiser at the beautiful Restaurant II?

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There was a beautiful spread in last weekend's paper - thinking this about what a lovely night it was (now that a lot of the exhaustion is wearing off!)

And Artistic Director HH has not been idle either - she has been naming the rooms after women significant to the history of HH (and mocking name plates for the rooms)

of course there have been bursts of celebration - a highlight was cracking this beautiful 2004 Dom Perignon with the bubbly Bernadette (champagne consultant to the stars!)

 

and attending a small part of the glamorous Mercedes Benz fashion Festival

 Do you remember the other moment of glamour when Womens Legal Service held their fashion shoot at our Green lady ?

(If you don't remember the post refresh your memory here)

Well a nice way to finish the week is that WLS have launched their new web site

http://www.wlsq.org.au/

and it is just full of beautiful Hanworth House images 

I love it and I know you will too - especially this one, one of my most favourite images of all time

Big day tomorrow - election day

More excitement! So much more than I am able to bear for one week!

Have a lovely weekend.

x HH