My Favourite Window

November 26, 2010

More From Historic Oamaru

Whitestone Belle
"I thought this post was going to be about trugs," says Lady Mondegreen, with an air of disappointment... or possibly disapproval. It is. But I couldn't resist this illustration of what happens to children, who are dressed from the age of three in pinnafores and bonnets for heritage recreations: they develop their own historical personae.

But back to gardening: Bill Blair of Coppice Crafts makes trugs and other wooden garden tools using traditional methods, at his workshop in the Portside area of Oamaru. There, during the evening for a spot of penguin viewing, I was taken with Bill's spare but lovely plantings around his workshop. A mass of vibrant red geraniums (of the Pelargonium kind) warm the foot of a cabbage tree in full flower. I absorbed the trim hedge around the chimney piece without noting whether it was Corokia or Teucrium and maybe it was neither, but the effect of these plantings is whimsical as well as respectful of the area's character.
Bill takes orders for his products and offers a mail-order service.

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