Mirror, mirror

Mirror, mirror on the wall, thanks for the slightly bigger garden. This is Pammy's idea. She spotted this mirror at a local second-hand furniture store, bargained and haggled the price down (atta girl!) and even had the boys from the store carry it up the hill to our place.

Then it was my turn to seal up every joint with silicone sealer, paint the frame with three coats of waterproof clear outdoor furniture sealer, and attach it to the wall of the shed.

Traa daaa! Our new garden-enlarger is now in situ. Pam said "I think 'jaunty' is the right word for that angle." And she's right. We decided to sit the mirror on some rubber blocks to lift it off the ground and take all the weight, and so like the ground, it's not perfectly level. Then we glued the mirror to the wall using a product with the excellent name of Liquid Nails. Hope it works...

The mirror works brilliantly when viewed from the back door. Imagine you're a guest, you wander out through the kitchen towards the seating area under the pergola. You look far into the distance (well, nine metres to be exact) and your eyes are immediately trompe l'oieled into thinking you are surveying a lush green Ponderosa of a property, instead of a little inner-city garden.

OK, that's probably taking it a bit too far, but that's the fantasy. But it does look good, and the reflections will always be of one of the more lushly planted and ever-changing parts of the garden. It might even change what I grow there, making me grow more colour just for the cool reflections.

I don't trust that miracle glue, so I have also discreetly attached some little brackets to the side of the mirror to keep it in place. The mirror is deep under the eaves of the shed. It will cop some rain when it really pours down, but it will be protected from most of the showers that fall here. Hopefully this will be the beginning of beautifully long and reflective tour of duty here in Amateur Land. Great idea, Pam!