Funny, we were just talking about the Moody Blues at the office today. Came in to the conference room at the tail end of a conversation, and started singing "Tuesday.....afternoon" in response to some comment. Turns out one of the professors is a major fan of the Moody Blues and is in awe of Justin Hayward - thanks for the clip. :)

I share your exasperation! We have a large garden with clay soil at our place in sydney and limited budget to redo the whole thing! With 2 kids and work it's hard to keep the backyard looking good. I've found that lilli Pillis worked a treat for screening and grew quickly ie within 2 years were at fence height ( 50cm when planted ) though it looks like you have some hedges growing that may be these already? There are more tree like versions of lilli pillis eg waterhousia floribunda see picture - it's grown over 2 meters in 1.5 years now almost 4m tall and starting to throw shade. We lost a heap of shade when our large Blum gum was removed due to safety reasons. Another option might be a baby citro gum tree? For general landscaping I also love purple fountain grass another plant that really thrives in our climate. Gets to about 1.6m tall and looks very pretty when there is a breeze and they are nice and soft for kids. Agapanthus are another plant we cat seem to kill, and they flower all spring and summer. I often take a look and see what the council plants in the area, usually gives me an idea of what is likely to grow and not require excessive maintenance. There is a fair bit of trial and error some things that look great just can't cope with my low/zero maintenance strategy I now order plants from a wholesale nursery as retail prices can be a budget killer. Also IKEA have good freestanding umbrellas, works well and was cost effective, casts a large amount of shade and can be moved around the garden if needed. The lawn is a bit of maintenance but speaking from experience if you don't have to water it then mowing is probably easier than garden beds, I haven't yet found a way to really stop weeds, so that might be a consideration. Hope the tips are helpful.

Hi, carpet has a consumer rating system that guides on the durability of each piece of carpet. It is designed to show you how a carpet wears. There are four ratings, light duty, medium duty, heavy duty and extra heavy duty, plus stairs. Each of these indicate the suitability of a carpet for a specific area. Stairs and passages are the hardest on carpet as the wear is concentrated. visually, how the higher rating is achieved is easily seen as there is more yarn per square yard to enable sharing of the wear. It is often expressed as a weight measurement per oz. eg 38oz. This is not usually provided by the manufacturers as they often vary it except in high weight or commercial carpets. what none of the above tells you however is how the carpet performs for flattening or staining. nylon has a good durability and flattening resistance, but average stain resistance so needs a treatment. This is because the structure of the fibre allows further colour ingress (stains) unless it is protected. polyester has a very good stain resistance particularly when it is solution dyed however it is extremely prone to flattening, particularly in doorways and track areas. If you are going to select a solution dyed polyester, my tip would be to get the tightest and thickest version you can, and make up some of the offcuts into mats for the doorways by getting them edged at a rug overlocker. my choice would be the solution dyed nylon in at least a heavy duty grade with the best underlay you can get (helps the durability and feels softer) cheers

hi everyone!... we have decided to replace the cavity slider with another barn door on the outside wall sliding opposite way to the one inside the room, thought this would help tie the rooms together. we are painting the room a shade of white with white trims, white barn doors and of course the black hardware. i will add bright touches later on with shelving for books and bright armchair etc... my next decision is the flooring?!... i cant decide, am thinking timber to link with the rest of the house, but dark or light??.. and i am very keen on the parquetry style of cutting. i have these 2 samples which i really like but not sure which matches the best. i have shared some pix of existing furniture that is in the flow on living area beside the toy room. The carpet here is charcoal, although one day id love to change it to a lighter beige colour. i feel the lighter colour will reflect more light and brighten the area? but maybe the darker suits the styling better?? we have a lot of dark timber furniture, how many different types of timber are acceptable in the one area!! :) welcome any suggestions!