The Pergola 

  Note: I will be traveling for the next three weeks, so there will not be another post until about the last week in January.

 In 2011 I built a pergola, which is off the path leading down the hill to the east, or the front of the property.  Then adjacent to it, and to the south, I built a seating area on top of a wall of granite cobblestones, reclaimed from the streets of Milwaukee.  I did all the work myself, so now I know that in my next life I will refuse to be a carpenter or a stone mason.  (Note: the third photo was inserted by error, and I cannot delete it.  It will be part of the next post.)

Going downhill

     These photos are from the far northwest part of the property, then leading down a hill towards the east.  The first photo shows the path on the right, which leads to the southeast.  Taken three years ago, it does not show the new stone structure built on its left side in 2019 (that structure appeared in the last post).  The path on the left heads east and eventually leads down the hill to the Japanese garden.

     The second photo shows the tiny rock garden, which is just out of view in the first photo on the left.  The rocks are all from Arizona, collected from my friend's place in Cottonwood, just west of Sedona.  

     The third photo shows one of 10 walnut log sections I placed moss on 12 years ago.  The second last photo was taken about 30 feet down the path to the east.  The last photo was taken another 20 feet down the path, but it looks south southwest towards the southwest corner of the property.

 

To the northwest

     In the first photo, the steps on the left lead to the water garden.  Going straight ahead, seen better in the second photo, leads to two steps, next to a railing, that then allow one to turn left to a path that leads to the northwest corner of the property--and to the back of the waterfall (seen in the last post).  The 3rd and 4th photos were taken before a new stone structure was built in the scene in 2019.  These two photos show the scene from both directions.  The 5th photo shows that stone structure.  The last photo shows a bird bath in which are placed stones, most of which I collected abroad, including Lake Baikal in Siberia and from hikes along the border of Nepal and India.

Behind the scene

   These photos are of the back of the major waterfall seen in the previous post. My wife bought some tiny clay pots for me to use for growing moss.  This was the perfect spot for them.  The moss is Anomodon rostratus, which prefers growing on limestone, which is what is there.

 

Lots of water

   Now to the water garden.  From 2000-2002 I built three separate water features in this garden.  There is a corner waterfall, about five feet high, dropping almost vertically.  About sixty feet away is the large waterfall, actually two separate three-foot vertical drops of water.  Between these two is what I call the "weeping waterfall," though I show no photos of it--as I need to replace its pump and do some rock rearrangement next year.  The photos are actually in reverse order, as Google "improved" its blog system, royally screwing it up in several ways.  So, the first three photos (of course, the last ones) show the corner falls that I took from on top the screenhouse shown in the second actual photo.  The water at the bottom of it splits into two streams that then fall over two short drops into small pools, and then the water flows out of them until it reaches the big pool (which, of course, feeds the corner waterfall).  The entire system has 43 tons of concrete (for the foundation of the big fall) and decorative stone.  I hauled it all up a hill, a 20-foot vertical climb, 200 feet from my driveway.  With a wheelbarrow--700 trips!  The happy frogs could not care less.  Two of the photos of the pond show water lilies, but they no longer are in the pond, as the shade got too deep for them.   So I replaced them with a large, lightweight volcanic stone that is covered with moss (and which is usually occupied by a frog--or two or three).

The stumpery

      Just to the north of the bog garden is my stumpery, a place of interesting dead wood.  Such gardens were popular in England in the 1800s.  Prince Charles is supposed to have one, though he has not invited me to see it (yet).  I visited one in the city of Invercargill in New Zealand in 2018.  The first two photos show that garden.  I hope to expand mine as I find more and more interesting wood.

 

Moving north

   These photos are from the area just to the north of the photos of the previous post.   The black box in the second photos covers a pipe and faucet.  The third photo shows more of the limestone rocks I collected last year from a building being torn down--and which showed up in earlier posts. The fourth photo shows a hanging fixture I made that was designed by Leonardo da Vinci 500 years ago.  The last photo overlooks the whole area, including the door to a shed I built into the hillside in 1987.

New photos

     I just downloaded some new photos, which will replace some of the ones I recently posted.  So, please pardon the repetition, but these are better, I think.