Land Scraping

A momentous day for the garden to be is soon approaching. The wild along the driveway and up to the electric pole was whacked in anticipation of the electric and phone lines being trenched underground to the cozy cabin. At the same time the driveway will be re-smoothed and re-graveled and the lower garden access road will also get a coating of gravel. Finish grading close to the cabin will also be done to help direct water to the opposite side of the driveway.



All this land scraping and infrastructure work marks the completion of the last impediments to free rein in the garden to be. I will be able to garden and plant anywhere I want once this work is done. The temporary power line will remain until I get the certificate of occupancy, but I think that can removed without any damage.

I so look forward to defining a bed on the driveway side of the cabin. Right now I am leaning towards a very zen sedge lawn groundcover with a nice upright form specimen Japanese Maple and perhaps a few other plants/objects of interest.



After all that land clearing, the glass block wall was tended to. All the spacer tabs were removed. The mortar joints got a good scraping. The bar code stickers were scraped off and a good dry then wet scrubbing revealed a nice shiny and sturdy glass block wall. It is now ready for the finish mortar in the joints and to get all dirty again.



Next spring for sure more time will be available for the garden to be. By next fall the monoculture of New England Aster that laps at the feet of the cozy cabin will be a fond memory replaced with diversity, some structure and just a hint of the wild.



In the not so distant future I will be able to be consumed by garden chores instead of construction chores.

Glass Block Stacked

Maybe you have noticed I am in awe of the front roadside bed of late. Even the Sheffie Mums color doesn't seem so salmony this year. It has more of an orange tint or I am imagining things after too many color exercises. Could be the increased number of companions has tamed its original shock value to my senses as well.

I'll keep that in mind as I work in a cozy cabin of strong primary colors. Furnishings will subdue it all.



Back to stacking glass block. And please note how the decorative 1x1 glass tile completely disappears behind the glass block. All that color coordination trauma and I could have gone in a completely different direction with a whole new theme inside the shower and you never would have know it until you got wet.



And at the end of the day they were indeed all stacked. Other processes will follow. There is always another process. The spacers need to be removed after the wall sets and then a finish coat of mortar will go in the seams like a grout.

For the worry warts out there, the glass block wall is anchored to the side wall at every joint and also has mini rebar type wire in every horizontal joint to give the whole thing greatly increased stability.

Because we did not buy the expensive glass block shower kit, there is an additional process. I will need to put white field tile on the door side of the glass block wall to cover the rough ends and create a flat smooth surface for the door jamb to be mounted to. I saw what looked like tile as the end piece on glass block walls at the Pittsburgh Corning site. That must mean it can be done.



The glass block wall is progressing smoothly. I like it when things appear to work. My computer went back to the mechanics and I think it is playing stump the geek. I have been told it has passed every hardware test he can give it. Now they are going to delete the Windows operating system completely and reinstall that, thinking somehow it was corrupted, like my computer has been hanging out with the wrong crowd or something.

I needed a little something to cheer me up after dealing with all the consequences of being zapped with an electromagnetic pulse. I went to the nice independent local nursery, for business reasons of course, and came home with a Bosnian Pine, Pinus leucodermis for myself. I did have bad intentions when I went in there. The new pine will become part of my evergreen screening from the scenic byway during the naked winter months.



The early Fall flower show has been quite dazzling this year.



It will all be over at some point though and I will need some good bone structure to carry me through the winter.



My new pine will help and buying it did make me feel better.

Fallish

For the first week of October the forest is still eerily green. Even when I look up to the top, higher than me, all I see is green. The recent deep chill has not slowed an intense wave of wildflowers from covering the ridgetop garden and beyond. The world is still in full bloom. I am bad about knowing when, but Fall color seems delayed to me this year.



Right now there are just hints.

My computer is back from the mechanics with a new hard drive and a repair reinstall of the Windows operating system. This is its test run. When I first turned it on it hinted at me by freezing up in the start up process. I shut off the power and started over. I have a bad feeling. Is the computer now going to be like the truck with a check engine light that won't go off?



I'm telling you I have been zapped by an electromagnetic pulse. My camera has been having bouts of strange behavior. Even my electric toothbrush won't stop brushing when directed until it is good and ready. The signs are all pointing to a new kind of life where everything is made out of wood and there are great big fields of potatoes.



The coming Fall cares for no man.



And I remain mostly, eerily calm.

Except now maybe I want to cry just a little because my computer just back from the mechanics is now Re-dead.

Yes We Have No Blues

One hillside of blue New England Aster must all be mowed. It has to go. A trench for the electric and phone lines will temporarily takes its place. I have no fear. Unless I stop it from happening, it will all be blue again next year.



And would you look at half a wall of glass block. There will now be a short building break while I work, but the glass block wall has left the starting gate.



It has been cool. With low clouds and regular mists. The highs have nudged 45 degrees for several days. These are not optimum temperatures for processes that require curing, setting, drying or any type of transformation.

So the little electric heater is now back in service. After two days the interior temperature has reached 68 degrees and the little heater's thermostat function was set.

Take note of that petite heater. The Rinnai wall furnace that will replace it one day soon is four inches taller, six inches wider and maybe three inches deeper. It will live right up against that wall between the two windows. A tiny little wall furnace like that will heat the entire cozy cabin.



I was resting, maybe daydreaming, contemplating a real nap on my new sofa, just looking around at the primary colors that grab you from this particular seating location. My that loft is blue. There will still be plenty blue after the asters get mowed.



And I thought, there will be a permanent ladder into the loft. It will be a substantial presence and piece of furniture in this room. All the details on locating and choosing that could be here soon.

A Busy Day

Plotting



The next moves on several fronts.
A multi-tasking headache



With little physical evidence of any progress



Other than a fettered mind. - - - - Day dreaming disturbed.

Mystery Solved

There has been some recurrent concern from certain quarters about how the 1x1 decorative glass tiles in the shower would look with the glass sink vanity top. Now we know. I think they match just fine. My eye sees a full tone lighter coke bottle green, a very clear glass. Another eye sees what is called an aqua green with a blue tone. I don't see any blue tone.



Now mind you unless I do a back splash of the bathroom sink with the leftover 1x1 glass tiles - like I need another project - the two shall never meet and will be partitioned off to their own territories by a Decora patterned glass block wall and a pebbled glass shower door of other glass colors and textures. The glass blocks and glass shower door are just plain clear. I detect no color from them. The textures add a whole other dimension though.

That green glass sink will also live in the green room, Laura Ashley Apple #5 green to be exact. Laura's green is sure to overpower any hint of aqua another eye might see.

People with glass bathrooms . . . . . . . .

This Sofa

Fell out of the living room at Client #5's. I brought it home to plant in my new living room. I love it. It is hard to tell in the picture, but the gold tone of the brocade fabric, so works with the Marigold walls. It is long enough and deep enough to sleep on, in near mint condition and better still it was free. Sometimes it pays to be a peasant gardener.



The Fairegarden Sheffie Mums are having their orange like opening phase in solidarity. Next to the blue New England Asters it is a foreshadowing of what lies below inside the cozy cabin. Yes of course I planned this.



The Chicory blue is closer to Laura Ashley Sky Blue #3 though. And soon enough the Sheffie Mums will turn a salmon colored pink, a giant mound of solid pink.



Isn't it a lovely sofa? It is the first Ec in the eclectic to follow.



The front roadside bed is quite eclectic in a way and putting on a spectacular season finale.



Yes of course I planned this.

The Wildest Time

By the end of the season the Lush has overwhelmed the gardener and garden alike. That's just the way it is when the wild is as much appreciated as the cultivated.



Fall waits patiently. The recent influx of a deep penetrating cool may get things moving.



For now the dominant colors of pre-Fall are blue, white and yellow.



Sprawling somewhat after several days of thick cold rain.



In the midst of the wild, pockets of civilized still stand out.



It's the wildest time in the wild cultivated garden.