“Moi, je suis le centre du monde!”
Before gas powered air conditioning, before the artful contrivance of the amber wooden deck, before the skilful modelling of the garden by the craftsmen since dispersed as far abroad as the eastern shore of Nova Scotia, before the polished emerald ivy vines had mounted the corrugated red brick walls and twirled the corners of the house undercutting the drawing room windows and front door mat, long before the thought of disposition instead of acquisition, an unpretentious and nondescript tradesman offered to “slurry coat” the concrete foundation of the house.
A slurry is a mixture of denser solids suspended in liquid, usually water. Depending on the mixture, the slurry may be abrasive and/or corrosive. Examples of of slurries include cement slurry, a mixture of cement, water, and assorted dry and liquid additives.
Slurry coating is to this day a highly inventive addition to one’s private residence. Like so many basics its celebrity dissolves in its artless rudiments. Yet it succeeds to distinguish the whole with uncommon novelty while commensurately blending with the entirety and the superfluity of the huge dark green front door, the stalwart matching red brick lamp posts and profusion of vines, trimmed bushes and the red and white berry mistletoe.
Slurry is basically a thickener. So it has culinary application. The most common use of slurry is as a means of transporting solids or separating minerals, the liquid being a carrier that is pumped on a device such as a centrifugal pump. A more unvarnished application is in farming. Slurry is created from cow manure and water and provides a fantastic, natural fertilizer that farmers can use to encourage the growth of grass and other crops. It is usually stored in a slurry tank or lagoon before it is applied to farmland as fertilizer. Rural inhabitants en route to and from the golf club are familiar with the tell tale smell each fall after the harvest is completed and the ground is prepared for the upcoming year.
The identity of individuality is not limited to the feudal prerequisite of fee simple. Already I am confounding within my imagination the prospect of the upriver view in our burgage tenure.
Ours is the northeast corner toward the Village of Appleton affording the morning sunshine but without the savagery of the southwestern exposure especially perilous in the summer, exaggerated as it would be by the floor-to-ceiling windows. I have re-animated my design for nautical adventure as well.
My cave-dweller legacy is accommodating my wistful preoccupations edited as they are by the distinguishing factors of time, space and money. But the resulting equation is a paramountcy of individuality.