Close to Finished

Well there are a few gentle waves which I hope to press out after the rain scheduled for Friday, add the last of the sand, after said rain has done it's compacting work, and voila, a new path. I was able to recycle all of the old path into the new; sand, bricks and geo textile, so that I only needed 3 more bags of sand and a load of stone dust [my favorite building material], and some new edging. Bought some really ugly plastic stuff but as I only need it for a few years before I pull it out, I went hunting and found some edging made of recycled material. I may not even have to take it out, it may dissolve like the recyclable garbage bags that disappear in 3 months. They work, we use them in the winter for compost. And as a reward for finally getting the job done we are off to the Atwater Market. Plant hunting.

New path with the outline of the old in the dark earth, adding sand, need to replace my gloves

The Fun Part Starts

And I am a bit of a wreak; the body is protesting. J has suggested a move up in sore muscle management to Motrin, that was after posting the sign on the door. The path is progressing well and I am almost half way. The best thing I did was borrow a friends roller to pack down the stone dust and sand. That has made a huge difference to laying down the bricks. As I lay the bricks, the robins are gathering for their nests, Zoe is keeping me company, the frogs are singing, the forget-me-nots are starting to spread their sea of blue, the early rhododendron are opening and my grannies violets are blooming. Can't believe we are into day 3 of glorious weather. Life is good. Hope your is too.

J's edict, starting re-construction, great light, last nights finish

The Path

I've been putting this job off for 5 years but finally got to it yesterday. Redo the path from the driveway to the front door. Over the years the bricks have heaved and slid slowly out of position; but the most pressing thing to me was the curve was wrong. I would look at that curve day after day redrawing it my mind. So I got the hose out, a great drawing tool, and redid the curve, removed the sod, and stacked the bricks in rather large piles. I am still not sure about the curve, it's better, but I will get the hose out again and see. Today I hope to get the path levelled and packed down, fill in the sod that you can see lining the edge and then the fun part starts.

Renovating the path

Stacks of bricks
 

Louis Kahn said bricks always want to be an arch.