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Both houses, and the land

The farm, in photographs

Both houses and the land around them: the tank house under its Mangalore tiles, the tree house up on its columns, the rooms in each, and the orchard and pond they share.

The Tank House

  • The tank house end-on: a steep Mangalore tile roof over red brick, a pair of pale green shuttered doors, and a mown bank held back by a low block wall, with mango trees and bare red earth in front.
  • The long side of the house across an open yard, tile roof running the full width, a planted border of cannas and young trees at its foot, and a single slab of granite set as a bench in the foreground.
  • The house from the paved path that runs past it, tile roof low against the sky, a frangipani in the foreground, and open fields visible away to the right.
  • The gable end of the house after rain: red brick under a Mangalore tile roof, a grey steel door and a louvred window, wet flagstone paving with grass in the joints, and grassed banks rising to the walls on both sides.
  • The brick gable seen at an angle from the flagstone path, a citrus bush trained against the wall, and mature trees in flower closing over the path beyond.
  • The orchard in rows of red earth with a solar street light above it, the lined pond in the middle distance, and the red house just visible through the trees at the left.
  • Rows of young trees in bare red earth, a gravel track curving through them in the foreground, and in the middle distance a wide shallow basin of water with a pale lining, backed by a green mesh boundary fence.
  • Inside the single room: a bed made up in blue against a bare brick wall, a white table and a blue plastic chair under the grilled window, an air conditioner high on the wall, and the underside of the tile roof carried on wooden rafters.
  • The kitchen counter along a brick wall: a sink, a kettle, a microwave and a small fridge, over white cabinets, on a patterned tile floor.
  • The desk under the windows: a white worktop against the brick wall, a chair drawn up to it, an air conditioner above, and the orchard and boundary fence bright through the glass on both sides.
  • The bathroom, lined in dark marble against orange-painted brick, with a white bathtub and a wall-mounted shower.
  • Young fruit trees standing in bare red earth, widely spaced, with the boundary planting behind them.

The Tree House

  • The tree house: a white two-storey building lifted on slim steel columns among mature trees, with a railed deck running along the upper floor and open shaded ground beneath it.
  • Two folding chairs with painted elephant backs either side of a small wooden stool, drawn up to a long window that looks straight out over the orchard rows in red earth.
  • The window corner of the upper room in the early morning: two carved folding chairs and a small painted octagonal table, with the orchard and the boundary fence soft in mist through the glass.
  • A pale dog sitting on the steel deck outside the open door, looking out over young trees and scrub that fade into morning mist.
  • The same raised house from further back, across a planted vegetable bed and framed by trees, with its upper deck and the columns carrying it both visible.
  • The bedroom: a wooden-framed double bed made up in white with towels folded on it, a curved wardrobe, an air conditioner, and a wide window onto a green field.
  • A bed made up in white pushed under a long window, with a branch across the glass and open ground running away into mist beyond it.
  • The upper deck: a wooden table and blue chairs on steel grating outside an open door, with tree canopy at the railing and a field beyond it.
  • The kitchen end of the upper room from above: a drop-leaf table faced in patterned tile, a counter with a sink and a gas ring under the louvred windows, and a fridge in the corner.
  • An earth track running between young trees on one side and a stand of banana plants on the other, a solar street light over it, and the white house showing through the trees at the end.
  • The view out from beside the house: coconut palms along the boundary, green crop fields and polytunnels beyond the fence, and a tree trunk close in the frame.
  • The tree house from the front with its open shaded ground floor, the steel stair up to the deck, and a circular fire pit set in the swept earth in front of it.
  • Young trees and green ground cover after rain, with the pale house small among the trees in the distance.
  • A paved path curving between mown grass and mature trees, a white dog lying on the grass to one side, and the green mesh boundary fence beyond.
The light is moving through the day on its own. Choose an hour to hold it there.