The Candle Melts at Both Ends
When we were gone from our hilltop for five weeks, it was inevitable that there would be some things that went amiss despite all the best efforts of Handy Brad, who we paid to watch over and water things. One of the stranger things that happened while we were away took place on the patio. The first time I went into the hot tub, I went to lay my towel on the teak table to the right of the barbecue and next to the spa railing. I wasn’t quite sure what I was seeing on the table. It had something strange on it that was covering a swath of the table slats, running toward the outer edge. There, whatever it was, had formed a sort of icicle of white drippings on the edge of the table and on the concrete deck of the patio. It was not so noticeable that it jumped out at you, but if you wanted to use the table for its intended purpose you could not help but see and recognize that the table needed to be cleaned of whatever had soiled it. White gooey stuff is generally not something we are inclined to put our fingers into to sort out what exactly it is. This is especially so in the out of doors where any manner of critter could be the cause of gathering whatever goo. When I did touch the icicle, I quickly realized that it was white wax and that when we had gathered with out neighbors in the days before we left for our trip, we had used some round puck-shaped candles for ambiance. Well, one of these had been left on the teak table, in the sun, where the heat of the hilltop sun every day gradually melted the thing away into a waxy streak, some candle drippings and a wad of wax on the floor. Candle wax is actually a very benign substance once you know what it is.
When I pointed out the waxy residue on the table, Handy Brad mentioned that he thought the wax might actually be good for the teak table. That makes some version of sense to me, but the truth is that as I have let the melted streak across the top sit longer in the sun, it seems less and less evident as though it is melting or evaporating away. We have had a few gatherings out on the patio in the past few weeks and the table has been in use, but no one has mentioned the wax. THe cleaning girls have also been here twice since we returned and they are always very diligent about cleaning the grill area and the patio in general, and they have not seemed to notice the candle wax. I may be the only one who notices it since I’m the one who discovered and moved the remaining lump of the candle with its wick and the wax on the table edge is really only visible from the hot tub and few but I go into the spa and can see that edge. Since it is so unobtrusive, (and probably because I am fundamentally lazy), I plan to leave it like it is and just see what happens to it.
Teak is a wonderful wood, as we all know. It is also the most expensive wood with which to build outdoor furniture. The argument that favors it is that it lasts longer than other woods, but the argument that works best with me is that it can look good fresh and oiled and it can look good old, dried and greying. It is unmistakably an aesthetic decision as to whether you keep it looking fresh and oiled or worn and weathered. The out of doors seems to accommodate either look. I remember a big brouhaha we had at the New York Wheel when, for a combination of structural and cost reasons, we had to switch the green roof landscaping design from a meandering somewhat random design to a more angular and symmetric design. There was an uproar that distilled down to one critic’s description of the all-too-important landscape design as a change from an “English Garden” to a “Formal French Garden”. It had never occurred to me to think of it that way, but now that it was mentioned, I must admit that I saw French all over the new design and it did lose some of its “playfulness”. Old weathered teak would have looked great in the English Garden, but the lack of casual demeanor to the new “French” design meant that it called for fresher, newer and more oiled teak. As it turns out teak is FAR too expensive for a big public use garden, so Ipe wood is used instead for its strength and durability. Only teak can beat it for longevity.
In addition to the two round teak serving tables we have, I also have large modular teak floor mats where I get out of the pool and under the outdoor shower. I have teak Asian benches both at that shower and over in the Cecil Garden. I use them all very regularly, though I’m not sure anyone else does. I am also in the habit of rubbing them regularly with teak oil to feed the wood and keep them golden rather than grey. I have nothing against the look of greying teak wood (I actually sort of like it and have that going on with four or five benches in Ithaca), but I feel that out here the Asian benches call for the golden teak look. It’s funny that I think that way since when we replaced the patio furniture, we replaces two of the dining tables with grey resin faux wood tables that will last an eternity and always look as they did the day we bought them. These tables were made to look old and weathered on purpose and look great on the patio with their brown and grey wicker (that would be synthetic wicker) chairs.
I am quite ambivalent about natural materials and surfaces versus synthetic designer materials and surfaces. We have put in grey planked synthetic flooring in the common areas of the house and we love both the look and the carefree nature of the material. As I replace railings in Ithaca that are exposed to the elements, I will use synthetic to both cut down on rotting and cut down on the need for repainting. These “vinyl siding” products used to be noticeably cheap looking. That is not the case any more and more often than not, people cannot tell the difference, which is clearly a win for the synthetic variety since everyone agrees it is both cheaper and easier. I’m sure there is an ecologist somewhere who will tell us that it is not biodegradable compared to natural materials, but then I’m not sure that ecologist would necessarily like the clear cutting of teak or ipe forests every ten or twenty years to make more deck furniture. Life is a a set of trade offs and technology has made it easier to go with the synthetic and still not feel like you are decorating your home like a 1970’s leisure suit.
When I was reading about trees lately, I was struck by the conflicting concerns about the saving of the ecosystem by human intervention and the meddling with natural processes by that same human intervention. The problems are thorny and multi-faceted and the answers are never clear. The world of unintended consequences and collateral damage seem to collide at every turn as we reach maximum human Earthly density of eight billion souls and all their attendant resource needs…made even greater the more we liberals prevail in leveling the playing field and distributing wealth more evenly. The greater good seems to be becoming a more and more ephemeral concept. Our existence is not much more than that single candle we are told to each light. It is actually a candle with two ends and the more light we try to shed by burning the wick at both ends, the more the wax melts and drips down upon us and makes us rightly wonder where the true path to enlightenment lies.