more garden nattering

[zanzjan]

Friday evening I got the gravel all laid down in the space I dug for the wall:


It was supposed to be rainy off and on all day today, but it failed to be anything other than sunny and pleasant. So I got out there with my trusty helper and the old man cat to supervise the works, and started placing rock.



The mosquitoes were awful, so I ended up only staying out for short, 20-minute stretches which was roughly how long it took the swarm to find me again. Probably just as well -- moving rock is hard work, and I was very overheated by the end of the day despite the frequent rests.

It's rather like a very big jigsaw puzzle where there's no guarantee the (very heavy) pieces all fit together, and you don't have a picture to reference to tell you you're getting it right. I found that I'd place a rock and be pretty happy with it, then an hour later I'd haul another rock off the pile and realize it was much better, and end up doing some substantial revision of the wall-so-far. Some of the stones have moss and/or lichen on 'em and I really want to do what I can to keep those facing out, but it adds a further layer of challenge to the project to do so.

By the end of the day, having spent the afternoon harassed by mosquitos and having dropped a rock on my foot[1], I called it good enough, came indoors, and came up with a complete list of characters for my flesh-eating bacteria story. *Now*, by golly, I should be able to figure out who the bad guy is!

Here's the wall as I left it:


Lots of work to go, but it's coming along quite nicely and I'm really enjoying myself.

---
[1] well, I didn't drop it ON my foot, I dropped it next to my foot, and I did it on purpose. I was unaware that apparently under some circumstances big rocks can bounce. Yes, I was wearing shoes.[2]

[2] if you count flip-flops as shoes.