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Once a month we send out an e-newsletter, giving behind the scenes insight into the production of the magazine, sneak previews of upcoming issues as well as interactive features.House of Happiness
"My children are my garden," says Ashleigh Ogilvie-Lee of her six, but that’s not the half of it.
Words: Kate Coughlan Photographs: Paul McCredie
Dinner time in the Ogilvie-Lee household.
It doesn't have to be Christmas for Ashleigh Ogilvie-Lee to garland palm branches across a mantleshelf, entwine ivy about a pair of life-sized wooden swans and plait a necklace of fresh anemones for a stone horse.
Hey, in this house on a normal old Wednesday afternoon a cheetah proudly wears a crown of thorns and Franki (18) is in the study playing solitaire in her ball gown. A crucified Christ slumps in a corner, off his cross waiting for a wall sturdy enough to hold his 100kg stone figure. At the kitchen table Cleme (24) and her father Michael (Ashleigh’s husband) are talking through the morning’s business news. Outside by the pool Jamie (14) and Gus (12) work on a high-risk airborne skateboard routine for the camera. In the kitchen Gigi (20), animal rights activist, vegetarian and Greenpeace volunteer, and Charlie (16), a fellow vegetarian, prepare dinner together. "Can you write that Gigi and I are the only real vegetarians, the others just pretend, and that I am going to be a male model?" he asks.
"Charlie!" shout all his siblings at once.
"Write that Charlie is a gangster."
"Write that Charlie is a socialist gangster."
"… a socialist gangster waiting to get out of the Bronx."
"And Franki’s an oddball."
"Gigi’s a hippy."
"I want it known," states Franki, "that Franki is the backbone of this family."
"She’s a party animal and when she dies she wants her hair straighteners and her Jacqueline Wilson novels buried with her."
"We’re fairly loose, our family," observes Cleme who flew in from Melbourne late last night and is readjusting to family life.
Like their mother’s extraordinary ability to layer texture upon texture and create a home of beauty and interest, the relentless banter of these brothers and sisters builds a rich and colourful tapestry of one another’s personalities. It’s not merciless mockery but love and respect. No one is overlooked and all personality traits are teased out, explored and appreciated.
