…before I go soak my aching back.
I thought I’d see if I could mock up my idea for what I’d ultimately like on the side of the garage. This is pretty close. It’s one reason I don’t want to go too dark on the side of the garage, as that will determine our midtone.
Whoooie…punchy. Tired. Back later…
Okay…the on-going question of what to do with the garage. This is the current virtual answer. We found this amazing arbor-gate at Lowe’s, and we want to use it to disguise the “door in the box” look of the side of the garage. The garage door swings inward, and the gate is beyond the step, so it should all work out pretty well.
For the color on the side of the garage, I took the color of the arbor, deepened and greyed it. Now, if we can just find the color at the store! The trim would be the same color as the fence. Eventually, we’ll probably make a Chinese key pattern in trim wood in the same color as the fence. Also, we got a seriously cool tree that we’ll put in just a little to the right of center. It’s a Twisted Filbert or Harry Lauder’s walking stick tree. (I call it a Gate tree.) We’ve wanted one of these since we were down in OKC, and low and behold, they had one at Home Depot yesterday. It was in this picture, but the flood fill colored over it.
So…whaddaya think?
Just a quick note on the wacom board. I haven’t had nearly the time to play with it as I’d like, but I settled on the Corel paint sketch pad and Autodesk Sketchbook express and I’m really glad I did. Sketchbook is, at first play, the most like an actual sketch pad that I’ve found.
Later!
Is taking it out of the box. (The following is a reenactment…in daylight.)
I opened the box last night. A large box filled with ecologically-correct brown paper. Lots of paper.
Underneath the paper was an elegant black box with a handle…
In a slip cover.
Carefully, I eased the round, heavy-duty tape off the tab that holds the box together.
I opened it.
Somehow, I feel like I’m getting into the big time, now….
Hmmm…Looks suspicious to me…
Efanor does a final quality check.
Okay…that was the fun part. Now, what say we try to get it working.
I read the scant instructions and one of the cautions is “If it doesn’t work, turn off your antivirus software and reinstall.” Not being one to fool around with that kind of nonsense, (and particularly since the install CD didn’t auto-run) I try to turn off my Comcast-free Macaffee software. I right click on the icon, expecting it, like any well-behaved antivirus software, to give me the option to turn it off.
Nope.
I go to its control panel and hunt and peck all around the antivirus subheading. I check the help files. Nothing. Great.
I go up on line to Comcast and in order to chat with a help person, I need to know my Comcast email address….
Darned if I know. I’ve never used it. I take a guess; fortunately, I guess right. Solution is simple…go back to the control panel and look under “Computer and Files.” Of course. Why didn’t I think of that? Of course it would be under Computer and Files and not AntiVirus. Sheesh. I turn it off, reinsert the CD, and the whole process begins.
I plug in the USB. The light comes on. A few seconds later: “Your Intuos has been correctly installed.” (Or words to that effect.)
Oh…goodie, goodie, goodie.
Now, they want me to register. Fine. I give them all the numbers, then they take me to a “choose your software” screen. I have a choice…Two of three: Photoshop Elements, Corel Paint Sketcher, and Autodesk sketcher.
Ack! choices! Anybody have any suggestions which? I know I want Corel Sketcher, and I have Paint Shop Pro, which is better, as I understand it, than Photoshop Elements. Does anyone know anything about this Autodesk program? It’s supposed to be specifically aimed at pencil-style sketching, which w/b nice. And it’s small, which might also be nice, i.e. memory-light, for just sketching.
Suggestions? Please? Pretty please with peanut butter on top?
I close out of that screen, pull out my little pen and make the cursor dance all over the screen. I discover that the pad rests perfectly over my laptop keyboard. I open and close files with little taps of the pen tip.
This is going to be so much fun.
I open Paint Shop Pro. Eagerly, I create a file. I flood fill the background with white. I make a new transparent layer and start with something simple. A paintbrush with black. I make a stroke.
Okay…it’s nicely curved, but where’s the much-touted variation of width? Of darkness? I sketch some more. It’s nice, but … I want to “ink” on the screen! It’s just a line. So, I poke and prod, looking for something that will make it do something cool. I check the help files, but it doesn’t recognize art pad or any variation thereof. Finally, in desperation, I go to the internet. I was sure PSP supported the art boards, and indeed, it claimed to, but nothing to say which brushes utilized its special properties or how to adjust them.
Finally, I don’t remember where, I got the buzz word “pressure sensitive.” Back to the help files, input “pressure sensitive” and with a bit more poking and prodding, I finally found that there was a whole new “palette” one had to bring up to make the pens work.
Not the simple procedure I had with my old wacom board…the one that hasn’t worked since Win98.
One thing’s for sure, once I begin to figure out all it can do, it’s going to be seriously fun.
But first, I have to figure out how to make the eraser work…
Well, with my blogging, at any rate.
Not a whole lot to report today, just more rock hauling and arranging, but boy, did we get some lovely rocks from next door. Several more wheelbarrow loads.
This is just a handful of those we hauled. The one in the center is about average, and it’s about a foot in diameter. Most I can lift myself, but I unearthed one today that Carolyn and I together could barely lift. It’s still in the wheelbarrow until I decide where to put it.
Then I spent the rest of the afternoon arranging rocks.
It’s curious how the space begins to shape itself. There are places we need to be able to get to, like the filter and the waterfall which need periodic maintenance. We’ve already established little paths to those and elsewhere. There are places we’ll need stepping stones or actual steps, like up to the bridge, or the waterfall. Where to put those stepping stones forms the ground around it which in turns suggests where to put plants.
Anyway, it’s a fun puzzle.
Supplement to “Ah, the Good Olde Days”. Good news! We’ve found a dishwasher soap that actually seems to work. Not as good as the old stuff, but good enough we don’t have to totally washthe dishes first. It’s Safeway’s packet dishwasher soap. Yay! (Hmmm, what to do with the old, crummy stuff…)
And now, I’m going to go open that lovely box that’s been sitting over in the corner for three days!
And my Intuos is still in the box. The shipping box. Sigh…
This morning, I slept. Late. Allergies are sucky right now (cedar pollen leaves a yellow dust over anything that sits still for thirty seconds) and I took Benedryl some time in the middle of the night. Put me out. Plus, I’d gotten to sleep late. You see, I went and read the comments all the readers had made on Carolyn’s bridge plans and it focused what had been bothering me all day about the design (while weeding). About the time we should have been going to bed, we started talking about my reservations and finally agreed on a final design and decided to redraw the arcs on the bridge supports in the morning. Basically, I didn’t want the support going to a point on the end. Seemed like it was just too fragile. So we’re raising the curve to a 10 inch rise rather than 11, giving us a good inch at either end. With a facia 2×4, it s/b plenty strong. We also compromised on a five inch width on the arc. That will give us a nine foot inner arc clearance and s/b plenty strong, especially since we’re putting in several 2×4 crossbeams, not to mention the 1×4 hardwood slats that will top the whole thing.
Predictably, I was too awake when I went to bed, so I read for about an hour before the Benedryl finally took effect.
Got up bleary and wandered into Carolyn’s room, where she was working away valiantly. (She’s amazing how nothing stops her from writing!) I told her, through a yawn, that when she was ready, I’d go out and help draw the arcs, if she’d go up on line and figure the radius of curvature.
I settled into my work chair, brought up my computer, played a game of Spider, then settled in to write yesterday’s post…And Carolyn came out, dressed and ready to go to work.
Whoopsie. I put the computer away, got dressed, we had breakfast, and went out to draw the arc.
Carolyn had this great idea to just use the measuring tape as the radial line and it worked really well. We aligned the tape using my long T-square and the center mark Carolyn had so carefully measured the day before (remember this center mark. It will become Significant), and everything seemed, seemed, mark you, to be aligned and good. No fuss. No bother. We got one side of the arc drawn easily, edge to apex, then I went to the other edge to go edge to apex in the other direction (since the apex is essentially flat, if you’re going to fudge, that’s the place to do it.)…
And it no longer matched up. Hmmm…We thought we fixed it, but then I couldn’t get the arc to go smooth. Finally, Carolyn said, “If only we had a roll of shelf paper, we could make a pattern.”
Well…duh! Of course. I didn’t have a roll of shelf paper, but I had an ancient tablet of large tracing paper left over from my figure drawing days (have I mentioned I never throw out anything?) I trotted downstairs (I even knew right where it was) emerged with three sheets and a tape dispenser, and we got to work on the half of the arc that looked right. That’s right, I said looked right. Who needs math and engineers and builders when you’ve got two artists/dress-makers in the mix? We made the upper arc, tracing the carefully measured one that looked right through my lovely tracing paper), measured down five inches all along that line, using the good old T-square to eye-ball a tangent/normal, and made the second arc.
Violá, we had half the arc drawn. Now…just flip the pattern and…
The pattern hung over the edge an inch. Silently, I picked up the measuring tape, measured the board…yes, 12ft. Good. Then…I measured the distance to the center mark. 6ft…and 1/2 inch.
Yesterday, Steve and Carolyn had realized the board was a bit long compared to the other board, and trimmed it very neatly accordingly…
But they’d never established the new middle. And Carolyn had measured six feet from the end that was ultimately trimmed. Ah, well. And so I joined the ranks of the Keystones. Note, I never questioned the center mark either.
We made a new center, used our handy-dandy little pattern, and in five minutes, we had two matching boards! (Well, they aren’t cut, yet, but they will match!) Then we determined that a width of 29 inches would be both aesthetic and (more importantly) highly felicitous and marked our 2×4 crossbeams accordingly.
Now, for the real work of the day. Our neighbor has a marvelous stash of the basalt rock we’re using around the pool and to edge our path. A stash he’s trying to get rid of. Well, twist our other arm, yeah? Only problem, it’s got to be dug out and either tossed over the fence or wheelbarrowed down the alley. Originally, his son was going to do this, but somehow, that’s been an excessively slow process. We’d offered to do it, but he seemed to think it was too hard work for two old ladies, and insisted his son could do it.
Hey, if I can get out of work…
Something in the last few months seems to have convinced him we’re not as old as he 
thought. Friday, he called me over to tell me he was going to be gone for the weekend, but would leave his back gate open, if we wanted to come after some of the rock, we could help ourselves.
Okay, I can take a hint. Fortunately, a lot of it is in a pile beside the garage and only takes a fair hike to heave across the fence. OTOH, some were really big and required the wheelbarrow. Carolyn came and helped for a while, but the hip tendon she’d aggravated skating flared and she (thankfully) had the sense to go do something that required a bit less bending and lifting.
I had no such excuse. I have a large wheelbarrow. I filled it three times with just the Re
ally Big boys, and heaved at least that much or more across the fence, working steadily for at least a couple three hours. But, boy, have we got a great haul. I’ll take some pix tomorrow. Still a few left over there, but the bulk is in our possession.
Came inside, took a soaky-bath, then settled in to watch the Mariner’s game while I caught up on my blog. Steve called right around dinner-time to say he was running late, but could still come over and cut the boards if we’d like, and we said we were just ready to eat, and he said how ’bout tomorrow.
Twist my other arm…
Friday AM Excitement.
I love my computer. I really do. But this AM I almost threw it through the window. Fortunately, I really like the window.
Cntrl F is on the fritz. In explorer. This…is not funny. A basic function like “find” going haywire in Windows means there is something fundamentally screwed. My heart rate increases dramatically. I really don’t have time or neurons to handle a major computer problem at the moment.
Okay…think. (Hard at the best of times…nearly impossible in the middle of a major panic attack, but I persevere.) I try the simple things, restarting, unplugging peripherals (like my 1.5 TB drive). No dice.
Okay…think some more.
Think…Think…what changes have been made in the machine. The TB drive, but it’s not in the equation now. Some new programs, lots of new programs since we got home, trying out different things with Word Press, Firefox, graphics and…
Ahah! Back when I was cleaning up the computer, I decided to try one of those reg cleaner programs. I did my homework and compared, read reviews, etc. And one, the best rated, had a 30 day, full program trial. I tried it and it found a whole bunch of garbage, mostly, it seemed, useless file associations. I looked over the “problems” and they seemed innocuous, so, since it had a total undo, I let it rip. Seemed okay, but that was the big suspect to me. So…I did the undo.
Still no “find.”
Think. Think. Ahah! (I need a little kitty emo with a lightbulb. Guess I’ll have to make one…) System restore. Go back a day (that’s the first restore available) Still no “Find.” Okay…just for funzies…go back to the one I made before the registry cleaner.
Bingo. And the restore right after the registry…and “Find” disappeared again. Bottom line is: The registry cleaner was the culprit, but whatever it did, its own restore couldn’t fix. Phooey.
And thanks to that fun and games, we were late to the rink, again. Got there and they had us on Rink Two. Now, time was I loved Rink Two. It was the one we skated on all the time, so it was what I was used to. This may sound odd, but the two rinks are quite different. Rink One, the older one, is not only larger, it’s built on a sand base so the ice is…springier. And a bit softer. Rink Two is, like most modern rinks, built on concrete. Cold, hard and fast. I still like the surface, but it’s primarily a hockey rink now so the ice is always a bit chewed up, even when freshly zambonied. (Hockey players like chewed up ice. I think it’s “grippier” for them for the quick stops they need to make.)
Anyway, the hard ice and choppiness can be a bit hard on old bones and joints and Carolyn and I both tired out pretty fast. Besides, we had OSGuy coming over that afternoon to help plant the trees. We couldn’t wear ourselves out.
We got home, and I began planting, and weeding and rocking, etc. etc. etc. I want to spread some tree fertilizer I got for the big evergreens, but realize they aren’t listed specifically, just “trees and shrubs.” So..I go in to ask Carolyn to check on the internet to see if it’s safe to use…and as I walk into the living, room, the doorbell rings.
My heart skips a beat. I know what it is, because I know it’s the 24th, and I’ve been following The Package as it traveled across country. I go outside, pick up the package…and sorrowfully put it on the floor, unopened.
The Wacom Board would have to wait at least a few hours.
Sometime in there, (Carolyn found the info on the web, and the fertilize was safe) OSGuy called and Carolyn went to meet him at Lowe’s to pick up the lumber for the bridge. I’m sitting crosslegged on the ground, weeding away, awaiting Steve’s arrival. Carolyn had a bit of very necessary shopping (if we were going to have anything for dinner) to do. Steve arrived…and somewhere in the offloading of the lumber, I realized he planned to help us cut the arched pieces for the bridge right then.
Panic. I hadn’t really planned on doing the bridge until later this spring…or even in the summer. I hadn’t really looked at the plans or anything else. I mean, I knew in theory how we were going to do it, but … Okay, I tell myself. Deep breaths. Let Carolyn and Steve handle it. I’ll just weed. It’ll all be fine.
Does the phrase keystone cops mean anything to you? I sat off to the side weeding, trying to stay out of it, and listening to Steve telling Carolyn “An inch to the west” “half an inch south.”
Finally, they decide the string is too stretchy ( it is a problem.) They try another string. Still no good. While they discuss it, I go into the garage and stare around, looking for something snaky, that doesn’t stretch, and that’s long enough. Ahah! Extension cord. I take it out to them and go back to weeding.
Now, they “argue” (very good naturedly) over whether math or builders are right, because the calculated radius of curvature just isn’t working. I finally ask…not being involved in the discussion, and so free to considered the variables…is the board actually twelve inches wide?
Uh…no. Of course not. Measurement: 11inches. More calculations, and Math and Builder can finally agree. The drawing of the arc begins, and now I can actually be useful…holding my hand under the middle of the extention cord so it doesn’t drag and make the curve “bounce.”
By this time it’s getting late (and I’m getting seriously hungry) and the trees still aren’t in, so we agree to leave the cutting of the board until tomorrow (Saturday) and get the trees in.
Finally!!!! I get my trees in!!!
Yay!!!!! I can get away from weeding!!!! (But the iris bed does look a lot better.)
The trees actually went in without much problem. I finally thought about you all, and asked Carolyn to go get the camera and record the even for posterior…er posterity.
The Hinoki Cypress went in pretty easily. We were halfway into the Vanderwolf Pine when I thought to ask Carolyn to go after the camera. In the background, I’m behind the cypress holding up the pine while OSGuy (Steve) is standing in the hole. Yes it was that deep!
This is the “Grass” I mentioned yesterday. It’s actually Dracena, which isn’t a grass, but just a pretty ornamental stuff. Celestial Light and Magic put a spotlight on it just so Carolyn could snap this shot for you all.
You see here OSGuy’s official OSGuy hat. It has a Green G in a circle.
Here we have the headless OSGuy. We don’t dare show his whole face because his rugged handsomeness might cause all internet viewers to come steal him and we need him. All we dare show is his great smile. (Actually, Carolyn was dealing with the zoom on a strange camera and beheaded him. Sorry Steve!
Is it straight?
At this point…who cares?
Time to eat!!!!
Hmmm…oh, yeah. Morning Excitement. I was just getting started with finishing up Wednesday’s post when Carolyn came in to inform me a fax we thought safely in the hands of our accountant…wasn’t. He’d gotten only the first page. She’d tried resending and it had still only sent the first page.
I went in to the office to try to solve it. I went through the procedure and again it scanned all twelve pages, but only sent one. Hmmm…I closed out the screen, and there, underneath HP’s fancy program window, was a message saying there’d been a problem with the fax and asking did we want to retry. Finally figured out that was referring to the fax we’d sent the day before as no one had touched the computer since we left it (or so we thought) happily faxing as we went off to skate. (The joys of multiple computers and screen savers!)
Anyway, I did the old “pull all the plugs and reboot” fix, and it worked. We got the fax off and headed for the rink…late again. This is getting silly. We’re always there early, and haven’t gotten there on time since we got back from our trip south! Had a much better skate. My feet were actually getting down into my boots again.
I have flat feet. About as flat as you’ll ever see. And pretty darn woosie. Whoops! Time to go skate. Later.
Hmmm…flat feet. We’ll leave the for another day, but it is, believe it or not, an important topic for Adults Who Would Be Figure Skaters.
After skating we went over to Freddy Meyers to get some more dracena (neat grassy stuff) and came away with a lot more groundcover. Then went to Lowes in search of a red Rhody Carolyn had seen and lusted after. It was, of course, gone, but that didn’t deter us. We came away with more stuff to plant.
Argh! I began planting, which is more than just digging a hole and putting in a plant. It means arranging rocks to keep the water on the plants. Thanks to the burm, everything is on a slope and and the waterfall mound is a real adventure in fluid dynamics! Before I knew it, it was five thirty, time to leave for ballet, but I decided to stick with the planting. Didn’t finish until seven, came in, ate, and turned into a vegetable.
Or maybe…I think I finished Wednesday’s post. I can’t remember.
Do you think I should be worried?
Note….I actually began this on Wednesday. My how time flies. But when I went up Wednesday evening to finish and post, the site was sllllooooowwww. Suffice to say, I didn’t get it finished. Anyway, I guess I’ll just let it ride.
Much, much better this morning. (And the crowd goes wild.) I feared I wouldn’t be able to move, but I guess the stretching involved in the gardening and especially the digging of The Hole did the trick. So…It’s off to the rink today. 
We had breakfast on the patio this morning. It was glorious. A pleasant wind (too strong to constitute a breeze) kept the trees moving. The cypress is wonderful. It’s got all these oddly twisting branches that catch every air current making it extremely animated. I’m so glad we got it!
I have a few minutes to work before we head for the rink, so it’s back to sorting files on the Big Drive. I keep telling myself, just a little each day. Eventually it will get done. But then there’s the listing of the library on Library Thing (a little each day) the gardening (a little each day) and the Closed Circle business (a little each day)…Oh, and housework (a little each day…) Hmmm…(closes eyes and places fingertips on forehead) I believe I’m getting a clue for the title of this post.
I finally got my room window open more than a couple of inches so I could really hear the pond. Good old soap on the frame. Does the trick every time…at least if you’re dealing with older wood-framed windows. They’re really pretty, but compared to modern aluminum framed windows, they’re heavy and difficult to lift. To add to the problem, I have a beautiful oriental chest right under the window, topped with my black cat plushy collection. (They reside there until the Halloween season, when they invade the rest of the house.) Getting an angle on the window creates another of those awkward gymnastic moments.
Just went and took a picture. The blond fellow sitting on PhatKhat’s lap is Wesley. The little pink-hair plushy at the bottom right is Shuuichi, and the one in the pink bunny outfit to the left is Ryuichi. Train AKA Black Cat is the white-faced plushy in between them. (And so, I slickly begin to insert my interest in manga/anime…are you impressed? What I really really really want are Saiyuki plushies. Now those would be fun!)
But…I’m wasting time. Must go sort files. Nice brainless activity to fill a spare few minutes. So much more productive than playing Spider Solitaire. Is anyone else addicted to that game? My preference is the medium, two suit, difficulty. Hard is boring…way too hard to win, and so is easy. Way too easy to win. It’s a wicked game, because every one of them can be won, therefore, I must continue to play a given game until I win. Supreme waste of time….
Skating was, um, brief. We got there late, and the nicest skating mom you’ll ever meet was there. She brings her autistic son, who absolutely loves skating (and is really very amazingly accomplished) several days a week. Her husband brought him last week and I was concerned that she’d been ill, so I stopped to make sure she was OK. Well, she’s a real reader, one thing led to another, and I was, shall we say, tardy in getting on the ice. I no more than got on and was warming up my recalcitrant feet (a major process) then everyone else was getting off! Wah! The session still had about twenty minutes to go, but I really don’t like skating alone. One of the hardest falls I ever took knocked me cold for several seconds and there was nobody else out there. Fortunately, it was only a few seconds and I got off in one piece, but it brought h
ome the potential dangers of skating solo. So…I got off, too.
And then, we went plant hunting. We planned to go after the pretty star magnolia at Lowe’s, but…we found something we wanted much more. Some beautiful Japanese Maples. One flaming red/orange, which will grow to about 15 feet, and the other a luscious spring green that will stay about 41/2 by 41/2. (See photo) Naturally, when we got home, I began digging. The red one, as you see, is on the near end (the pic is taken from the back doorway) and the green is off to the right.
I placed a bunch more rocks, then attacked The Tangle Beneath The Hawthorne. I’ve tried for two years now to salvage the ivy bed, but the grass has just embedded itself thoroughly…So I began stripping and sifting roots. Several hours later, I had a pile on the concrete and about a square yard cleared. Glug! Blow torches are now being considered….
When I finally came in and showered and sat down to finish this post…the site was pretty much ice aged. Took forever just to change screens and the display lagged behind what I was typing by about three words. I decided it wasn’t worth it and began doing some more file sorting while we watched Bleach.
I think it’s time to investigate an offline blogging software….
Owie-owie-owie-owie…
I…hurt. If I had the sense God gave a newt, I’d've set a limit for my outside time today. Suffice to say, newts have me beat all hollow in the sense department.
There’s just so much to be done…and bottom line, it’s fun. Well, cleaning the garage wasn’t, but it had to be done, and it sure looks better. We have a lot of narrow shelving in the garage, which is really nice for things like plant pots and chemicals and such. Shelves we’ve picked up in oddwad places, meaning nothing matches, but in a garage, who cares?
Problem was, the two big metal shelves were in the wrong place. I got some old cabinets from our skating coach, Joan, which were really handy right by the door. The only way they’d fit was sideways, jutting out from the wall, which meant when I put Wesley (my car) into the garage, his side mirror was in constant jeopardy. It also meant it was hard to get at the tool rack which was between the cabinets and the shelves.
I had a bit of room on the other side of the shelves, but moving the shelves meant offloading them and moving some of the furniture we have stored in there, awaiting our mythical garage sale. Two disassembled futons to be exact. The end supports of which had casters on the bottom. Four ends. Heavy. And they had a distressing tendency to, well, do what casters do.
‘Twas a handful, and within a very few minutes, I was greatly regretting the decision to leave my cell phone inside. Another set of hands would have been exceedingly useful, but I was in the middle of the mess and just letting them go would mean scarring the wood. Somehow, I managed to hold them in place while I reached a packing blanket and worked it under them, which held the casters in place, but it was, shall we say, a (not very pretty) gymnastic performance! Then, I got to move the shelves, which involved some more gymnastics. At one point I was sitting on the floor, shoving with my feet to get it tight to the wall.
I was very glad to get outside, no matter it was way hotter than this time of year should be.
Today’s real agenda was shoveling. We’ve got two big trees and a little mugo pine that need planting. This is the mugo pine. Carolyn took pity on me and came out while her disk was optimizing and planted it. I’m not really sure why the pickaxe is there, not sure I want to know, but I have a feeling it involves the roots of the very large hemlock that’s on the far side of the fence. I’m sure glad she handled it.
Meanwhile, I was working on The Hole. The Vanderwolf pine is small for 
a Vanderwolf pine, but it’s still a healthy six feet tall, and its “pot” is Large. (Oh…that’s the hemlock in question on the far side of the garage.) Something like 24in across and 18in deep. The Hole needed to be about twice that across and at least that deep.
The top shovel depth wasn’t bad. I churned that up pretty thoroughly last summer when I cleared this section out. Churned it and filtered out the rocks. Naturally, it had grown a new crop (this is Washington, after all) but they hadn’t had time to grow very big. And when I got below the churned level, and fist sized rocks began to emerge, I hauled out the good old pickaxe and whacked away.
Until, only a couple of inches short of the required depth, I hit something that sent a shockwave through my entire body. Being a native Washingtonian, I immediately deduced the problem. No matter where I’d chosen to put the tree, it was a guarantee I’d run into A Rock. Maybe not This Rock, but it would be A Rock. A Rock whose sole purpose in life was to be a pain in my pituzza.
Added to the fun, The Hole is in the middle of my beautiful bed of mulch that was the Wilderness Behind the Garage. I couldn’t just dig and fling the dirt to the side, I had to carefully rake the mulch aside, peel the weed cloth back, and then put all the dirt into containers. Lots of containers. (That’s what’s sitting around me here.)
Anyway, Carolyn came out just after I discovered The Rock. She planted the mugo, then went after the camera to memorialize The Rock. All this time, I’m scraping away, digging the small rocks wedged in around it…a regular archeological excavation.
And there it is. I think we need to name it.
I should have called that enough, but I really wanted to get the hole dug for the cypress, which involved lots of rock planting and stabilizing the right side of the waterfall, and just because, I expanded the beach. Finally, I put away all the tools, then, as I was walking toward the house, I thought, “gee, wouldn’t it be nice to eat outside tonight…” But in order to do that, I had to strip the covers off the patio furniture.
That’s when I discovered just how sore I was.
Newts, I tell you.
Today, I arranged rocks. Exciting, eh? Actually, it’s a lot of fun. I adore puzzles and this is a BIG one.
In the photo to the right, the pink circle is where we’re hoping to put one of those oriental ceramic seats. It’s got a glorious view of the falls. The green circles are sitting rocks, all fully rump-tested. They’ll give an easy reach to feed the fish. Koi are really cool, they rapidly learn to eat from your hand. You see in the background the trees in their pots. The two blue circles are our water lillies. (You can click on the picture to get to a larger version.) 
Here’s the other end, showing the other sitting rocks as well as the third water lilly. Actually, those are cute little fake water lillies that are attached to the real thing by a string, which is how you lower them into the water. The bulb is in a little net surrounded by growing medium. Theoretically, it’s supposed to protect the bulb and roots from hungry little koi mouths.
I planted rocks, then we went on a field trip to Northwest Feed and Seed and Lowe’s and came home with more plants and the water lillies. We of course immediately planted them all and this is what the backyard looks like now.
Are you buying this? Ah, the joys of image manipulation programs. In reality, it looks like this…
Ah, you got me, this is a composite, too. The trees and even the little mogo pine are still in their pots. But at least this gives you an idea what it might look like in a day or three.
