Forgotten Possibilities....
As we Swelter into the Dog Days of Summer, Dear Readers, I find myself seeking the relief of Arboreal Shade wherever it can be found. I am fortunate to have some big old trees casting blessed shade over parts of my property, and while I had to remove the biggest of them a few years back (it was a danger to the property being very tall and hollow inside) I am very grateful for the shade the others provide. It is hot again this week... (I am tired of this extreme heat!) and the Summer is just begun... and so I shelter inside and turn my attention to the Castle.... and the Chapel Murals. There go Adam and Eve.... cast from the blessed comfort of Arboreal Eden... sent out to the harsh unforgiving World... and that harsh blue sky and baking earth... and once again... I am toning down that blue sky. It is always tricky to judge the paint colors as they are painted... they will dry a slightly darker hue... so once again you can see the "lighter" shade starting next to the Archangel Gabriel where he is evicting the chastened sinners from Paradise. We don't want this World to appear too appealing after all... it needs to be barren and bleak and rough. I can sympathize with their discomfort. It is hot out there.
It is subtle, this lighter blue...
but the right hand panel is done, the left is not.
And here they both have been
"lightened" to a paler, faded sky.
And because It takes me a while to be sure of this color,
I cast my attention to my own Arboreal Wonder....
The Tree House... which stands to the side of The Folly....
(perhaps dreaming it's own Dreams of fulfillment....)
and My eye lands on one of those tiny little irritants....
a place where the steps don't meet the floor just right....
(can you imagine a world where they always landed just right?)...
Of course, it is hard to spot, back there
where the next staircase winds upward...
but trust me... there is a little tread-shaped
wedge-like gap.... and the piece of "scrap"
(a cut-off from the castle window capitals construction)
that seemed like it just might fill that gap!
It would be a challenge to test...
With the Nursery back wall removed, you can see
the little wedge inserted there at the base of the stairs.
Ha! Look at that!
I could not have cut a better fitting piece if I had tried!
The Scrap-genie is at it again!
When the glue dries I will trim the steps level...
Here they have been trimmed... next I will stain them
and then we can forget this ever happened!
But meanwhile, over in The Chapel...
the worldly Adam and Eve get their eyes....
Ah, the eyes....!
The eyes always say so much.....
and Adam and Eve are seeing with new eyes...
And while I am trying to ferret out all those little missing bits
that need to be finished before we can glue down the Nursery Walls...
I have had another look from the back side of The Nanny's Room....
toward the "front" side of The Tree House.
We are looking at the back side of those posts
to which all the doors' hinges are attached.
The first post was not tall enough and needed
to have an extension spliced onto it.
You can see the junction in the above picture.
It has a very irregular shape due in part
to a subtle change in the slant of the extended post
(The Tree House itself does slant outward from it's base
... in a natural fashion as it leans over its brook...)
this change was on purpose... the extension needed
to slant less than the lower section.
Then there is another small extension
just for attaching the Nursery Opening Wall door....
leaving a horizontal seam between the two pieces.
Here you can see it from the Nanny's Room opening wall doorway....
there in the left corner by the sconce...
I have always thought this would make a perfect spot for a set of shelves.
Nanny would want to keep her supplies in a safe place, after all!
Here you can see the same wall from the opposite direction....
looking straight down from the Front side of The Tree House.
You can see that the wall "posts" don't align exactly....
a nook is formed.
And oh look....
the ceiling trim is missing too!
The last little remaining pieces of that trim
were still waiting to be used....
it was just a matter of trying to get the swags
to align once the miters were cut for the corner....
the longer section is needed just to
accommodate the miter cuts....
And here you can see the last piece has been
fitted into the top of that forgotten hidden wall.
(Sorry about the too dark photo....
sometimes I forget the need for flash!)
Here you can see it from the side opening wall....
with the sconce lit and the painted ceiling in place.
It fits quite well!
And reminds me that there should be wallpaper on that wall....
But first I get started on that bookshelf....
made of old coffee stirrers.....
It is really difficult to tell if it will fit
in that nook until it is partly constructed.
The Nursery Room wall is still not attached
so it can be moved out of the way during
the fiddling and fidgeting stages...
but then we have to put it all together and try
to see if all the walls meet in the right places...
so far they do!
While I am waiting for the glue to dry
on that tiny shelf, Dear Readers,
I revisit the Chapel to add the rocky landscape
and to refine the shape of the trees...
(having decided that this is The Blue that will be right)
now I can complete the rest of the landscape details.
And while I am working on the trees of this World,
I glance up to glowing Eden and realize
I have not yet repainted any of those leaves
since redoing the golden background!
Yes, I was forgetting that step!
But since I had the green paints all mixed
I got right on it!
Here the tree's leaves have been done....
but work is still needed on the roses and the vines.
And the Earthly Adam and Eve
still need their clothes painted...
and Gabriel needs details on his wings
and more gold on his halo.
Still so much to finish...
But back in the Tree House, we are testing the
bookshelf in the corner to see how it fits.
I will be trimming the sides and adding a top shelf.
Some of the thickness of the door trim
needed to be carved away to fit the shelves.
And somewhere along the way, Dear Readers,
I realized If I pivot The Folly property on my worktable
so it is "kittycorner" (diagonal)
I would have much easier viewing
of this difficult hidden forgotten wall!
Here you can see that much of that
little window seat is actually visible at the right angle!
And I have cut down one side of the shelf...
testing to see if it is the right height now...
Here I have cut the wallpaper panel and added the
wainscot top trim at the right height.
The shelf just fits under it.... but it leaves a small gap.....
which looks awful!
I am just realizing that this wall needs the
same wainscot paneling as on all the other walls!
See what I mean?
Here the wainscot top rail has been stained....
but looks out of place without the paneling below it.
Here you can see that wall from the back side view....
(we won't be able to see it from this angle when the Tree House is done)...
but you can see how the forgotten wall really needed to be completed!
As for the "protruding" section of the hinging post....
that is going to become a part of
the external tree trunk intruding into the room.....
it just needs to be made more "tree-like"....
Starting with a cardboard bump-out....
Covered by some paper bark shape....
don't worry, this is just the foundation layers!
There will be much more added before it is done.
I had to add the ceiling into the mix to test for placement
and coverage and general shape and view-ability.
And another shot.... this is the "treeness"
that has been missing from these rooms!
We are nearing the top of the pollarded trunk of this grand tree.....
and thus the walls of the trunk are narrowing in
and intruding into the living spaces.
I need to get the methods nailed down....
Ha ha, remember the lilac stems Odyssey...?
Let's hope it doesn't take that long!
Meanwhile I cut a bunch of matchsticks
down to size and glued them in place.
And stained the paneling.
This is the view from the back side with the
Nursery wall (to the right) removed...
but this way you can really see the
entirety of that forgotten wall!
And with the shelf in place!
It really makes that wainscot disappear....
but it really didn't look right without it!
And there's that little cushioned window seat too!
I didn't get a whole lot done that was new, Dear Readers,
but I found many tiny improvements
and refined many tiny details...
and started to recapture the "Treeness"
of this amazing Arboreal World!
