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?
