Garden

[jeshyr]

These are two photos of the view outside my bedroom window. The older photo shows light green box elder in the background, but most of the foreground is the dark green leaf of … I don’t even know what the tree was. In the newer photo, there’s just the light green and a completely bare stump. You can’t tell from the pics, but the dark green was right up against the window and the light green is 4-6 feet away.

The workmen who cut down the tree immediately outside my bedroom window without even bothering to tell me that it was going to be done were utterly shocked when I burst into tears. How on earth can anybody imagine that I would not care or want to know about what happens within a foot of my own bedroom window?

I know full well it’s body corporate land and I have no control and (virtually) no ability to make them stop, even if I had known in advance, but the fact that they were shocked that I might *want* to have some knowledge or control really baffles me …

Comments

[acelightning]

could you put up curtains, or an awning (if it won't be in the way of what's left of the tree), or something similar, at that window to provide the shade and/or privacy you've lost? there's always some way to get at least partial control of your environment, despite the management :-)

oh! i just had an idea! *checks IKEA... checks IKEA Australia...* one or two of these by the window, inside - you can mount them so they swivel to adjust the angle.

(i don't think i have to tell you that IKEA "children's" products are also quite useful to grownups. a few months ago, i realized that my little two-drawer nightstand - from IKEA, some 20 years ago - was overstuffed and starting to fall apart. when i looked for a replacement, i found a unit that was about twice the size, with bigger drawers. it's intended as a small chest of drawers for a child's clothes... but it's plain white, and it just looks like a bigger nightstand, which is exactly what i wanted!)

[jeshyr]

I have curtains, but then i can't see out.
I have to close them now, of course, because it's too bright and sunny and exposed now with no privacy so I can't leave them open anymore.
But with the curtains I'm enclosed.
Instead of dappled shade and leaves to look at, it's just curtains.

I hate it.

[acelightning]

that's why i thought of the giant leaves. (they're fairly translucent.) i was imagining that you could position them near the top of the window. but maybe they're not big enough for what you need.

the last time i was in a fabric store, a couple of weeks ago, i saw some unusual fabric. it was made rather like "camouflage net", but on a smaller scale. the base fabric was a sort of semi-opaque netting, printed in shades of green and brown in a fairly normal "camo" pattern. but irregular snippets of the same fabric were stitched all over it, attached only at one end, so they'd flutter like real leaves. this was being sold as apparel fabric, which i thought was rather weird. but if you had curtains made out of something like that, they'd provide privacy without blocking the view completely, and let a little bit of dappled light through.

that stained-glass film is awfully pretty, too, and provides more privacy.

[jeshyr]

I'm thinking of getting a strip of this for the top 2 feet or so of the window: http://www.wallpaperforwindows.com/pc/Atlantis-Stained-Glass-Window-Film-p271.htm

[acelightning]

oh, that is pretty! i couldn't find the curved corner bits on the website, but it's not a terribly well-designed website in the first place. and i know how artistic you are - you'll make something totally gorgeous out of that window :-)