Going With The Flow....

 

Getting Carried Away...

I Left you in my last Post, Dear Readers, with The Folly Garden Rocks pretty much the way they had been for more than a year while I worked on the Rhododendron Shrubs. But Every time I would walk past it, I would move a few rocks around, or add a few "new" sample rocks or just glare at it. Clearly, I had a long way to go and was not sure of the next steps. But as it came time to "launch" the Evergreen Rhododendron Shrub, I thought I could surely improve on the painting I had done on last year's new rocks. And the first step was to apply a few coats of polyurethane varnish to "seal" them and give them a more durable surface. Luckily there were a few nights with cool enough temperatures to open all the windows and let the breezes clear the air! (It has been hot so far this summer!)

 

 

This required clearing off all the "pet rocks" (aka Real rocks!)

 and applying varnish to the already "finished" rocks. 

And as soon as the varnish had cured, a second coat was added for durability. 

 

 

And because one of the things about the rocks that had been bothering me

 was that the acrylic paints were glossy when they dried...

 which made the rocks look wet all the time... 

So I bought flat paint samples in a bunch of "rock colors" 

and repainted all the rocks....

 

 

I am still just randomly adding layers of "stippled" colors,

 using a fairly dry brush to add speckled amounts of different colors in layers.

 This is not yet the finished product...

 but starts to build the tonal colors of the different rocks.

And I kept looking at that "other side of the brook"... 

and realized that I might as well construct those rocks now 

while I was painting the other rocks,

 or there might never be coherence in the end...

And did I mention how much foam board can be wasted, Dear Readers,

 as you try this rock here and that rock there

 and try to get a sense of how it all should go together

 and still look "natural" when finished?

 

 

 

Not to mention how many hours drift away as you carve one rock

 to maybe define a section of the brook edge 

(which needs to straddle the wooden landscape framework) 

or days float by as the rocks maybe fit 

but after all are not quite right when more are added.....

 

 

I started at the corner where the Tree House opens

 right above the brook... at the uphill side of the property.

 And I needed to be sure there was clearance for the opening doors!

 

 

At first I was just determined to get the outer wall covered... 

or converted to a rock border....

 but I soon realized it looked too artificial... 

too much like a canal and not enough like a wild brook.

 

 

 

And part of the plan has always been that there is a small dam in the brook, 

creating an "upper pool" in front of the Tree House and a "lower pool" at the other corner

 where the brook overflows into the meadow beyond the property.

 And just to complicate things, The Tree House itself is constructed on it's own base

 which lifts in and out of The Folly Landscape.

 If you look carefully in the above picture, you can see where the two bases separate.

 A small bit of the Tree House base needs to be a rock at the edge of the brook...

  but That will be added later. For now, the bottom of the "upper pool" 

needs to be elevated above the level of the "lower pool".....

 

 

Here you can see that section of the "upper pool" inserted,

carefully carved to curve along the edge of The Tree House Base

 so it can still be lifted out.

 

 

And because the "upper pool" will need to have a certain depth of water, 

there needed to be a larger "rock" in front of the Tree House opening door...

 a sort of doorstep if you will.

 

 

And then I needed to test the sort of "dam"

 that kept the Tree House "upper pool"

 separate from the more public "lower pool"..... 

and got a long way into a dead end idea....

 

 

Still adding rocks to the brook side....

 

 

But not happy with the overall feel of the brook.

 It looks more like a canal than a brook!

And the next morning, Dear Readers,

 I realized I had dreamed all night about the wild, tumbling rocks

 that overflow off the edge of the "landscape".....

 and decided there was nothing to do but

 extend The Folly landscape base!

 

 

Mind you, I was only adding a 5/8th inch "buttress" 

to support these wandering rocks

 that were so necessary to the dream! 

You can see it screwed and glued on in the above picture.

 

 

And while I was changing the structure,

 I remembered it was necessary to lower the wall in the "lower pool"

 where the brook needed to exit the landscape... 

 

 

Here you can see I have started to saw into the wall... 

it will need to be chiseled out.... 

and I am testing the "extra supporting landscape" beyond the wall....

 

 

And the following morning I had realized that the dam was all wrong... 

(I dreamed of the rocks again...)

 and knew that there needed to be a "big boulder"

 which over the years had been nudged partway into the brook

 by the huge roots of the Huge Old Willow Tree which houses The Tree House!

 (These roots have always been planned to be part of the landscape...)

 so I pulled out the offending dam and created a really large rock

 (by foam panel standards) and positioned it carefully to obstruct half of the brook.

 

 

You can sort of see the huge rock halfway into the brook....

 

 

 

And I had also realized that the rock on the other side of the brook

 would need to be larger and probably knocked aside

 by the weight of the Big Boulder.... 

 

 

together they would form the "dam"

 where the water gets held back in the upper pool.... 

and the tipped rock would need to be "stabilized"

 by the ground below it..... 

 

 

Which would require more "support" 

in the form of an "extension" to the extension already in place....

 which you can see above.

 I am always aware of how vulnerable

 the edges of the property are when being moved...

 people will grab "the base" and expect it to be solid and sturdy.... 

so I make sure it is!

 

 

This is the view of the Tree House "upper pool" looking down from above.... 

you can see the "tight spot" between the two boulders

 which creates the "dam".

 And the pool itself is a more natural curved shape....

 

 

 

But the new "extension" to the base is going to need integrating....

 and the rest of the brook needs its rocks.... 

and another day or three had drifted downstream... 

Which made me Dream that night of "bedrock"..... 

and of establishing the "solid ground"

 that supported all these jumbled rocks.... 

and to ponder the flow of water and ice

 and the very Geology of the region...!

 

 

 

And in the morning I added a huge slab of "solid ground" 

to cover most of the "extensions"....

 

 

And then I had to carefully "notch" the original corner boulder into it...

 

 

And then make the tipped boulder"settle" onto the "bedrock" 

in a way that might be natural.. or at least believable!

 

 

And then pile on more rocks to cover that base wall.... 

but I can already assure you, 

they are not right as they are 

and will need.... something done....!

 

So you can see, Dear Readers,

 I have been going with the flow 

and getting carried far far away....

But didn't someone say Life is but a Dream?

 

Playing With Rocks...

 

The Folly Garden Landscape....

It Was already well over a year ago, Dear Readers, that I began the "improvements" to The Folly Garden Landscape in the corner where the Rhododendron bush sits, and I am not referring to the Shrubs themselves! Above you can see a picture of how this corner of the Garden looked for many years as I worked on other projects. A piece of green cloth had been draped over the bare ground on the embankment to resemble grass or moss, I suppose, but nothing else had been done to this corner at all. You might recall that this Garden was the wilder garden on the side of The Folly where the little brook runs past near to the house, and The Tree House grows up very close beside the house itself. The embankment around the house foundation is pretty steep and I had always intended that it be a bit of a "Rock Garden"... primarily because the foundation of the house had originally been protected from the brook by large boulders along the house side of the property. The idea was that it was wild and unmanicured and  just a bit neglected. There is a narrow path along the embankment that leads to a small sitting spot that overlooks the picturesque brook... (which will get constructed eventually!)... and a Garden that in it's youth (a hundred years ago!) was vaguely Japanese in inspiration. The ancient hollow Willow Tree which houses The Tree House (still not finished!) and the Rhododendron Shrub in the corner by the porch are almost all that remain of the original plantings (some peonies will appear someday...) according to my imaginings of this space.

 

Here you can see the same corner with the green cloth removed and the bare embankments and nary a Rock in sight! "Rock Garden! Hmmph!" Mr. Gnome has been known to mutter reproachfully as I pass by! Yes, there is one "sample" boulder being tested there by the steps... but really, it lacked all appearance of Rockiness!

 

So I began to try my hand at making a few more "boulders" to hold the little Brook away from the foundations. You have no idea how much "foam board" can be wasted in this process as you try to make a Rock-like surface of the correct size and shape! The material is 2 inches thick, so you only have a medium sized rock as far as depth goes... And if you have ever tried to build a stone wall you will know how much even a small rock weighs and how difficult it can be to make the surfaces agree with each other! 

 

And each time you add one... it seems to become like a "cornerstone"

 and can't be moved again but everything else must work around it...

 

 

One massive "boulder" at a time... 

building the streambank at the edge of the garden.

 

 

And adding a couple more "boulders" to the foundation embankment too... 

and here they have been painted with a coat of primer. 

 

 

And then the first coats of paint,

 trying out different shades of gray for the base coats. 

In this part of the world we have some very gray rocks...

 slates and granite mostly, so that is what I am trying to imitate.

 

 

I am not at all sure of the ultimate color balance of these rocks... 

so I am just being random for now. 

And I want them to make logical sense physically... 

to look appropriate in the end.

 

 

It is really difficult to tell in this picture

 that I have added some color texturing to some of the rocks.

 

The path to the garden bench needed to be solid enough

 for the little people to walk along it...

 so I brought Joanna over to test the footing. 

She said it needed a little more width!

 

And of course, it was a start....

 but it was nowhere near enough rocks! 

So I started to add more.....

 

I don't know about you, Dear Readers, 

but I always find myself picking up stray "pretty" rocks

 and bringing them home with me!

 I don't go looking for them, but they jump out at me...!

 So I wanted to include a few "Real" rocks in this project.

 They needed to be small so as to not add a lot of weight...

 

Can you see one of my REAL Rocks there......

 between the two pink foam ones on the path? 

 

Can you see it better now? 

I know, the lighting is not great.....

 but it is a Real rock inset into the foam base!

 

Here I am painting the foam rocks,

 so I have removed the Real Rock from it's spot

 so it won't get painted by accident!

 

Here I have begun the painting of the rocks... just the first coats... 

and you can see the gap for the Real Rock.

 

And here you can see the Real one temporarily in place.

 It will help me with the realism when I eventually

 get to the finish coats of paint on these rocks.

And once again.... there needed to be more rocks.... 

 

In particular, the front corner of the "garden wall"

 needed to be huge boulders, not just little bricks!

 The stream would carry away bricks in no time... 

it needed to be "steered aside" by huge immovable boulders!

 

 Here is a closer view.

 I carved them to fit over the existing wooden base wall.

 

And here they are getting the primer and first coats of paint.

And we have to test how the bench will sit among all these new old rocks!

 

And Joanna wanted to test the new path.... 

"much better" she says!

 

And because they are nowhere near done, Dear Readers,

 and this was all last year's work

 and I have probably "rocked" you to sleep by now... 

I will leave it here.

 But you can rest assured, 

I am still Playing with Rocks! 

 

Green.....

 

Grow the Leaves... Oh!

Can You remember, Dear Readers, about a year ago when I first posted the "Summer Green" Rhododendron shrub at the Folly Garden and wondered if it really had enough leaves to qualify as "finished"? Well, as some of you might realize, I decided it needed quite a few more leaves to really look right as THE evergreen shrub beside the Folly Porch. It is Evergreen, after all, so only steps aside briefly for the Blossoming version which takes a week or so, and for the Snowy winter version which comes and goes quickly only in Winter, so it had better be really worthy of all the rest of those months of viewing! Above you can see the "revised" version, newly "completed".... even though there are probably a few more leafy stems I will add, in particular in the corner by the Tree House. If you can't remember exactly how it looked before.... I have added a photo from Last Year....

 

And I know the lighting is different, 

which makes it really hard to judge.... 

but I also know that the newer version has nearly 400 leaves

 more than last year's version!

 

Here you can see it again... this years (version #3-2) 

from the side of the Garden near the Tree House. 

It definitely looks "denser" to me.... which was the whole point!

 

 The "trick" was to add the "understory leaves" which are

 the previous year's growth still attached to the shrub. 

And believe me, this was tricky to do! 

And very time consuming. 

And as some of you know, last years "green" shrub

 got a coating of "snow" during the Winter 

and is now the "Snowy Winter" version (#2-2)!

 So nothing was wasted after all!

 

And yes, Mr. Gnome is hoping that some of the disruptions

 to his usually quiet neighborhood will be finished for a while.

 

And maybe I can get working on some of my many other

 unfinished projects.... the list is Looooooong!

 

And Speaking of Green, Dear Readers,

 some of the threads I had ordered arrived

 and among them was a blue-green shade

 that I could use in my Astrological Cushions! 

 

The Leo Astrological cushion design

 was asking for four shades of green and one of gold

 for the ground below the Lion.

 The darkest green had arrived a while ago,

 and finally the blue-green arrived.

 Until it did, I did not want to start stitching

 until I could be sure it would work with the rest of the greens.

 As you can see, it does! So I got stitching right away!

 

Here you can see the Leo Cushion before starting the greens...

 but with the night sky completed. 

These kits are designed for larger scale, 

so the details are quite intricate for this tiny scale.

 I was not sure the two blue colors would be needed... 

but I have decided they work out okay....

 Just the darkest blue would have been

 too much like the black border squares.

 And once the ground is stitched... it makes beautiful contrast...

 

This is just the first two greens...

 

Here you can see the stitching beside the chart... 

it is sometimes difficult to tell which color the printed square is...

 they are very similar shades.

I start with the colors that are clearest to follow....

 the darkest and the lightest,

 and gradually fill in the more confusing ones.

 

Here I have added the golden wheat color....

 

And here the Leo Cushion stitching is finished!

 

 

And because I had also been waiting for

 that blue-green for the Wyvern Cushion... 

I got busy right away with the Green ground. 

This chart only needed the four green shades... 

no golden color is needed.

 

More of the Greens have been added...

 only the last one is still not stitched.

 

And of course, I have started the border for

 the last little Cushion for this piece of mesh....!

 

But I will Leave you here, Dear Readers... 

Wondering what the final cushion will be.... 

because I do have just a few more Leaves to grow

 on the Evergreen Rhododendron Shrub!