I stopped by my now-favorite supplier of stones, whose name I forget but who is out on Hwy 34 next to the tropical fish place, and picked up this:

I’m going to try to make it serve as the basis for the westpoint sculpture. The young woman who helped me pick it out said that they had a guy making oil lamps out of rocks like this, and he used a blowtorch to burn the rock away. It’s worth a try, unless my grinder has some kind of diamond wheel attachment. The depression only has to be a quarter of an inch, after all.

There’s still the problem of drilling holes into it and balancing the thing. Something tells me there’s going to be a third piece of rebar holding up the front edge.

In other news, all the ferns I planted last year are reviving, with the possible exception of the three southern wood ferns that went where the tree fell. They don’t seem to be putting out any new growth. But look at everyone else:

I wish I could get some clear pictures of the little painted ghost ferns. Those are delicately beautiful.

On the other hand, I think the cinnamon ferns over by the glider may have died. I know the Mexican male ferns that went by the entrance to the men’s loo did. And apparently I’m the only person in history known to have killed off ostrich ferns. I’ll plant some more and dare them to take over the southwest corner.

I got busy this morning and completed the eastpoint:

I added the cowbells I bought in Senoia a couple of months ago. At first, I just used rope, but the weight of the bells pulled the rebar posts too far out of line. I added the copper pipe as a stiffener, and it not only works, it looks good. Here’s a closeup:

OK, so the photos don’t do it justice. But there’s Air complete. The only real point to complete now is West/Water. Perhaps during spring break.

This afternoon was so beautiful outside, I just basked in the sun. Well, I quaffed a couple of quaffs of Xtabentun. But the afternoon earned it. You should have been there.

For at least a year now I have planned to use some leftovers from the construction of the labyrinth to build the westpoint focus. These are the bits of the paving stones that I lopped off to make the curves of the turns. I noticed that if I put them all together they’d form a nice stone circle.

I immediately desired to put them at the westpoint of the labyrinth, as a kind of gate to wherever the labyrinth leads. (As Craig pointed out, it might also be a gate leading in.)

As I’ve thought about it, I’ve been amassing stuff to help pull it together, literally: cables, ties, etc.. My plan is to drill a hole in each of the pieces and thread a coated cable through them to hold them in place. (I know I’ve talked about this before. I’m recapping.)

Until recently I haven’t been able to see exactly how I would mount/display this gate, but traipsing from point A to point B in Savannah last weekend gave me the time to meditate on it. Lest you think I am able to actually meditate, let me hasten to clarify: my thoughts were more or less “if we came across the coolest garden shop ever and they had exactly what I wanted, what would it look like?”

It would look like this:

I want a flat, table-like stone that either has a natural shallow basin in it or that I can grind one into. This gives me the water I need for the West’s element. The shallow nature will keep mosquitoes from using it as a breeding ground, because it’ll evaporate before they can spawn. Maybe.

I’ll drill holes in the table and through the circle and insert rebar through as standards. Under the table, I guess I’ll wrap wire or use epoxy or something to keep the table from slipping down.

The next question, now that I’ve decided what it will look like, is whether the circle stones (which are actually just concrete) are deep enough to have a rebar-sized hole drilled in them. I’m betting not. I’m betting I have to go find actual stones to do this with.

A quest!