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Did you ever go “down the back” to the dunny? The outhouse had a lot of nicknames but is a victim of modernization, sanitation and sophistication. And of course, we love our tiled flushing sewerage or septic rather than creeping in the dark with a torch to that little room at the bottom of the garden. But I remember my grandparent’s country outhouse with great fondness. Why do I recall more vividly the experience of dewy frosty grass, the wavering beam of light from the torch or a candle as I crept to the darkened dunny in my nightgown before bed? And in the morning, the dewy crunchy frosty grass under bare feet because I never bothered with slippers, the fright of an unwelcome visitor like a large green frog, a red back spider or a dozy possum sharing my space. Nana cut up the paper in neat squares when we ran out of expensive “fancy” toilet paper. There was always a book or a newspaper handy and the cement floor had the imprints of my uncle’s baby feet in it. Passion fruit and chokos softened its stern exterior and while you sat the hens clucked by the door. One never closed the door as the view of gum trees and bush was too nice.
So while spending time at our holiday house in the Manning where I have a small studio as a work space at the bottom of the garden, I decided I needed a dunny. I said it was to save trekking up to the house where once there I got sidetracked and didn’t get back to work in a hurry. If I had my own dunny, I’d be back at my desk in a flash. Well, darling Boris went to every recycled timber mill and yard, scrounged the tip and secondhand places to get an old door with 7 layers of peeling paint and magnificent iron hinges, ancient tin roof. Stuff was hard to find as we’ve found lots and lots of people are doing the same thing! Building an “old” dunny. So we had to use new gum wood which will weather quickly. My dunny is a tiny mini septic with flash porcelain loo inside but sitting on the nice wooden seat, I leave the door open and have the best view of the river. A few finishing touches await before the christening of Di’s Dunny but there’s a waiting list of guests. And we’ll have to put a time limit on visits, the view is that good. I planted a climbing rose as well as the chokos. And it’s the first thing people admire when they come to visit and it’s become a great nosalgic talking point. Kids love the “cubby house toilet” and it’s caused, me yet again, to reflect on the pleasures of the simple life.
Cheers
Di’s latest book The Islands, published by Pan Macmillan, is now on sale.
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