Here Comes The Sun...

 

The Bigger Picture...

Spring is Officially Begun, Dear Readers, and whether or not you get warmth along with it, at least in these latitudes, we are getting three or four minutes more daylight with each passing day! This is a very welcome thing in my world! No, we have not warmed up much... but our days are above freezing regularly now, and we have had some good rainfall and most of the snow has now melted from my yard. The snowdrops and a couple of crocus are blooming in the protected corner by the house foundation and little clumps of bulbs are pushing up their noses around the yard! And the blackbirds and the Robins have returned and are singing their cheerful Spring songs. So, predictably, my thoughts are turning to The Castle! There it stands, magestically dominating my workroom and reminding me there is Work To Be Done every time I pass by! And I know right where I should begin (always with the part that is nagging the loudest!) in this case the trim around the Great Hall Windows.

 

And I will apologize in advance for all the darker than desired photos... 

it is still gloomy here on many days, even those that begin sunny 

cloud over and make it difficult to get good photos in my house.

 This picture is to show close-up that the window frames 

have still not been completed, even though the windows

 were glazed two years ago. (Where does the time go?!) 

The complicating factor for these windows is the 

bi-fold doors for the front of the Great Hall. 

The panels fold back against the next panel, but if you add 

trim around the windows that has too much thickness, 

the doors will no longer fold all the way open against the other panel

 because the window trims bump against each other. 

I am compromising in order to have some thickness on the 

window trims (it would not look right otherwise) but not so much 

thickness that the doors stick out too far when open.

 Because the doors are mostly left closed, 

they need to look their best when closed. 

I also needed to make sure any "irregularities" in the windows were

 smoothed out in the overall result. (Because the window openings 

were all hand cut by me many years ago, they are not

 perfectly cut and perfectly exactly aligned.)

 I started by running a horizontal base line under all 

the clerestory windows, assuring that the base of all the frames 

would be glued in the correct alignment.

 

Here you can see the bases and the side pieces have

 all been attached. (These are the easy pieces.) 

The middle post in each window will be ornate,

 a decorative column dividing the panes. 

In the ancient times, these windows were not always glazed, 

glass being so expensive and hard to come by. 

They had shutters inside to close out the worst of the weather. 

The columns were structural as well as decorative... 

they helped carry the weight of the rocks above the windows.

 

Here you can see I have cut the foot of the columns for each window.

 

And here, if you look carefully, you can see

 they have been glued in place, 

one at the base of each central column. 

This is a slow process, Dear Readers,

 as I try to construct four identical finished window frames. 

There is no kit with pieces all ready to be assembled!

 

But..... oh Look! 

The sun is coming to shine for a moment 

into this dark northern room....!

 

 Just at the Equinoxes, Dear Readers, 

the setting sun can reach this far into the house

 and shine briefly across the Castle Facade,

 shining a beacon of hope on my long labors! 

At last... Here Comes The Sun!