The Week As I Saw It...

This past week I have had numerous opportunities to tell the story of the figs to Sherilee, who as you all know, loves (with a capital L) figs.  But I keep forgetting.

On Friday last I was in town on a gravel run and while I waited for the ferry to bring me home I rang up a lady in town to invite her and her husband for a picnic the next day at a park.  

She said yes.  The next day the four of us decided that weather and timing being what they were we would just go to their house for lunch...we had a delightful picnic at their dining room table and before the meal was over they brought out plates (yes, in the plural) of figs all ready for eating and what a delight!!!  

They gave us this plate to bring home and we had a marvellous feed for a couple days.  Good start to a productive week.

Yes, they were huge and as good as they look...

Sunday morning started bright and early with Sherwin drilling the first hole into the existing house; it was so thrilling to watch.

From the outside he made the hole a little bigger and waved assurance that all was well...

With my camera still in the 'shop' for repairs I suppose I did not take as many photos as usual with the iphone, though the phone was easy to use and gave good snaps.

Even though the week entailed lots of concrete work I did have to turn my head once in a while to admire the colours around me...my sunken garden has taken off this year and is now the sunken jungle.

The days this past week just melted into each other.  I know we accomplished a lot but it is hard to even remember which day we did what.  Tyler, the boy helper, came on Sunday but after that he was off to 10th grade.  

To fill the columns Sherwin had to stand on a ladder, scoop from the bucket of the tractor and patiently fill, one shovel at a time.  He has worked extraordinarily hard and is thankful the week eventually ends when he can just rest.

It feels good to have some tasks totally behind us.  Below is hole no. 7 ready for framing now.  We cleaned out the hole yesterday, even vacuumed it and Sherwin brought in nice, clean gravel to fill the edge where there is no bedrock.

Now let me invite you into my new closet.  Doesn't it look grand?  It is huge.  I am one happy girl.

In this photo no. 4 is formed up and ready to pour.  Then we waited a day and stripped the forms.

No. 2 will be covered in stone facing from about 5" up from the ground up to the beam.  That will happen later.

No. 1 in the garage was very tricky filling and I was helping out so much with the process that there was no way to take a photo of it actually happening.  There is only a small space at the top of the form to get the concrete in but it got full...

...and here you see Sherwin putting on a topcoat, parjet, that will clean it up and make it pretty. This column gets no stone as the other three all do.

Here you can see the difference between the-before on the right and the-after on the left.  He does a great job.

My job was to provide Sherwin with fine sand for the parjet.  We have a stash of coarse masonry sand and it required a screening to come up with a lovely fine quality suitable for a smooth finish.  You can see I got somewhat carried away making designs in my sand.  

Sherwin worked into the night to get a good finish on the floor around the column in the garage.

And then it was Friday...Sherwin wants to tell you about Friday (it was that good).  Give him a minute and he will have it posted at 'Shower Wisdom'.

"Each morning sees some task begin,

Each evening sees it close;

Something attempted, something done,

Has earned a night's repose." 

-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow