Building...

I attached a photo to my profile today, after much debate about what I should put on display for people to see.  I like the ability to put my thoughts out there, like a diary and yet I want to keep some sense of privacy.  I know some people would have no problem posting a photo of themselves, but to me that is too personal.  Do we not make judgements based on how someone looks?  Why then, if this post is to share ideas, should it matter what a person looks like?  And who's to say that one photo of myself will represent the many sides of my personality on any given day?  And so I chose a photo of a project I completed with my husband...

The photo is of a system of planters we built in our yard.  After years of fighting to keep weeds out of the garden with the many stones collected from around the yard, I decided we must win the war against the weeds.  It just so happened, that at the same time, my husband was working on a printing job for a company that makes these and many other brick/stone products.

Some might say that this is not a task to be under taken by yourself, but rather one that you should bring in the professional landscaper for.  But to me this was an opportunity to work with a different set of artistic tools.  The blocks as my medium and the ground as my canvas.

So how does one do something like this?  Well, if you are me, you plan it all out.  I took the demention of the blocks and began playing with different designs/pattern ideas, while looking at the area I wanted to cover with my design.  I went so far as to create a template of each wall I wanted to build, in a computer program.  This not only let me see what the finished product would look like, but it allowed me to accurately calculate the number of blocks I would need for the project.

The tough part was the digging.  Living in Western Mass and on the side of a hill, like we do, one encounters many a rock when digging.  You end up spending most of your time trying to dig them free from the surrounding earth so you can continue digging.  Then most of them are heavier than the blocks you have purchased to build the raised planters.

Once we cleared the area, we had to make sure our ditches were deep enough for the bottom courses of each wall.  Then the tamping and the leveling begins.  Then the crumbled rock like material that you must lay down, tamp and level.  Finally, you begin to lay the block.

This is a slow but rewarding process.  If your base is not tamped and level, your wall is not going to stand the test of time.  So as you itch to start laying block, you must patiently make sure the preparations are right.  Then with each block, you must align, level, tap, turn the block or grab another that fits better.  And finally the cap stones are set in place and you have only to back fill around your work.

It's been years now since we built those planters, some of the plants have died, others have taken over and alas, there are even some weeds, but the planter still stands solid and strong, just where we intended it to be.

So the photo I have posted in my profile has significance in that life is about building.  Maybe it is building friendships or family or business.  Maybe it is building new beginnings.  All of those need strong foundations, care, patiences and time.  And so I end this post to go and work on all that I am building in my life...