Hardwired

architecture

New Zealand 2014: Dunedin

Ocean view from our room at the Hotel St. Clair.

Over breakfast, Jen, Bruce, David, and I continued our conversation of the night before as though it had never ended. And again we remained at our table talking long after the other guests had departed from the dining room. To avoid having the waitstaff work around us, we moved to the living room to say our goodbyes, and we promised to keep in touch via email. It was time for them to leave for Queenstown and for us to drive to Dunedin.

Along our way, we stopped in the town of Mandeville where David wanted to tour Croydon Aviation, an airplane museum, while I took photos of the countryside and basked in the sunny day. 

Late in the afternoon, we arrived in Dunedin and checked into the Hotel St. Clair, which is on the esplanade. Our room had an ocean view. The fading day had turned a bit chilly, so we slipped into hoodies to walk the beach and the town until we worked up an appetite. I could have stayed an extra day in Dunedin to photograph more of the Edwardian and Victorian architecture, but time didn’t permit.

Having done enough driving for one day, we chose a restaurant close to the hotel—Spirit House. The food was good, the service slow. The next day we had a full travel schedule—Dunedin to Auckland and on to Melbourne, Australia—so we retired early.

After the drive from Dunedin to Auckland, a layover in Auckland, and a three-and-a-half-hour flight to Melbourne, we checked into the Hilton Melbourne South Wharf and recharged with a short nap.

We had dinner reservations at Vue de Monde, view of the world, and the restaurant’s bar did indeed have a panoramic view of Melbourne. The bar and restaurant are on the top floor of a downtown office building. Only diners and drinkers are allowed on the elevator to the top floor. The waitstaff escorted us to the bar, as we had arrived early—five minutes early, the greeter informed us. Five minutes passed. Ten minutes. Fifteen. Twenty. Because we were uncomfortable seated at the bar with a growing, noisy crowd gathering behind us, David told the bartender we were moving to more comfortable seats near the windows to enjoy our drinks and the views. The bartender summoned a server, who tried to talk us out of moving. He had to know where we would be in order to seat us for dinner, and he had no idea exactly when that might be, despite our having reservations. We moved anyway. Forty-five minutes later, our server showed us to our table in the dining room.

The prix fixe meal began with a selection of appetizers: oysters, wallaby, and salmon pearls to start, followed by lamb heart, duck tongue, and smoked eel, and finishing with steamed pork and duck dumplings. The entrées were Wagyu beef and rack of lamb. The dessert was tonka bean chocolate soufflé. To end the meal, a cheese platter.

 

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A Southwest Glossary: Architectural Terms A to L

Last year, my readership asked me to devote several posts to a glossary of terms used in Brainwash and Gadgets. Most are specific to the southwestern region of the United States. I’ve also added a few terms that will appear in CLON-X as Darcy and Rio will return to New Mexico to resolve some unfinished business.

Yes, I made a slight change to the Clonx title, to ensure correct pronunciation. The title is the name of Catherine Lord’s cloning company in book four of the Darcy McClain and Bullet Thriller Series.

The glossary gives a description of each term and includes a photo(s) for easy identification. I also plan to do a photo blog series showing the exact locations chosen for certain scenes in the novels—for example, the crime scene in the arroyo on Darcy’s land in Taos (Brainwash). The glossary will be divided into three parts: architectural, geographical, and a flora/fauna/miscellaneous terms.

Architectural Terms

Adobe
Sun-dried mud bricks. Also a house made of adobe bricks. The bricks are made from mud mixed with straw, formed into blocks, and placed in the sun to dry and harden. Photo: ManYee DeSandies, Taos Pueblo, New Mexico.

Banco
Adobe (or facsimile) bench built at the base of a wall.

Canale
A drain spout that protrudes through the parapet of a flat roof. Its function is to drain rainwater and melting snow off the roof. Most canales are not installed on the north side of a house, because discharged rainwater can refreeze in shaded areas and an ice dam can form on the roof, preventing drainage.

Corbel
A short carved wooden beam that sits on top of a post.

Cricket
A cricket or saddle is a ridge structure designed to divert water on a roof. They are usually seen around the high side of a chimney or the transition from one roof area to another. Crickets might be barely discernible on a flat or low-sloping roof, but they should be there to divert water to the canales or else water will puddle along the parapet where it meets the roof. See also canale and flat roof. Drawing: http://www.wholesaletimber.net

Flat Roof
The term “flat roof” is a misnomer, as the roof is not technically flat, nor should it be level. A flat roof should have some pitch as well as crickets to ensure water drainage to the canales. A minimum slope of 1/4” per foot is what is expected of flat roofs. The cricket in this flat roof is quite pronounced. See also canale and cricket.

Kiva
A small “beehive-shaped” fireplace, usually built into a corner. You can see these semicircular fireplaces in both indoor and outdoor variations and some will have an attached bench (banco) for a cozy place to enjoy your fire. See also banco.

Latillas
Latillas (sticks), are relatively straight, slender saplings about 1–2 inches in diameter, stripped of bark and laid across the log roof beams (vigas) as decking.

Lintel
A lintel is a header or horizontal support of timber, stone, concrete, or steel across the top of a door, window, or other wall opening. Left, lintel across the top the windows with vigas supporting the roof overhang. Right, lintel across the top of a door.

 

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