LASTING IMPRESSIONS

It was such a lovely, sunny winter's day Sunday and we spent the afternoon at our friends' ranch near Blanco. They have done some amazing work out there with their landscape structures and this time we were going to see their pizza oven in action.
It might just have been an uninteresting concrete pathway that led out to the oven but, but no, they have fancied up the concrete with some leaf impressions.

I am still puzzling over these first ones because in the photo you would swear they were in relief. The sun, low in the sky must be creating the illusion.

 Either way they captured my attention when walking out towards the patio.

Here's their magnificent pizza oven.

So how exactly do you serve pizza to a crowd? Everyone is in charge of their own pizza. First you have to roll your own dough. You pinch a piece off the dough from the bucket, roll it out, put it on a piece of parchment paper on a plate. Next you choose your toppings. Spoilt for choice might sum this up.

Then it's time to take your pizza out to be baked. It slips into the oven on its piece of parchment which I am told helps prevent the bottom getting burnt.

A short time later out it comes.

The pizzas came out in pretty rapid succession and one or two were made extra large for sharing while waiting for others to bake.
On the way home David was wondering where we could built a similar oven but that's one project I don't think will never happen.

WHEN GARDEN PROJECTS SNOWBALL

Have you ever started a project which snowballed into something much larger? For us it began as my simple suggestion that a fence to hide the air conditioners alongside the house would improve this area. D agreed and before I knew it the fence was built.

He then decided to make a pathway down the side of the house. We use this route regularly from front to back. Because there is a slope away from the house, which becomes greater further down the pathway, it wasn't simply a matter of putting in a single height of edging.

There was a good deal of discussion about what material should be used to line the sides of the path. Chopped limestone block wouldn't match the house and we don't really care for metal edging. In the end we decided on wood to match the new fence. You can see that the edges of the path step down towards the far end and then rise up again. The surface material would run right up to the wall of the house.

This part of the project was greatly aided by this little gadget. I have no idea how much they cost but I know we paid $1 for it at a garage sale. When I think of all the times in my life I could have used this, but it only arrived last year.

More discussion about the material we should use on the surface: gravel or decomposed granite. In the end we decided on 1/4"-1/2" Fairland pink granite gravel from Geo-growers at $37.50 yd. We did a split load which included 4yards of granite for this project, 2 yards for other projects and 2 yards of soil to replenish the vegetable beds. That's quite a load for someone to move!

By the weekend the job was completed.

Now we just need a good rainfall to pack down the granite.

I asked D to add up the cost of this project. All those little trips for cement and wood added up to a tidy sum.
Total cost for both the projects $860. The project also came with a promise from me not to allow plants to grow in the pathway!

HE SAID

I'm going fishing and when I come back I expect you to have removed the cross vine from the gate, so I can paint it, and remove the weeds and bluebonnets, marigold mint, Mexican hats, feather grass, poppies, blanket flowers and a host of other things, growing in my granite path.

No seriously, I know he wants the pathway to be a pathway and he needs to paint the gate and he has gone fishing so this morning bright and early I set about doing those two tasks.

Job done.

Job almost done. Feather grass not removed, yet. I may need it somewhere else. Of course it looks a lot better. The best thing is David will be pleased and I am very pleased that he is bringing back his daily quota of redfish, caught on the fly.