Bricks and stuff

I bailed on the ride today, but I played with bricks. It was the right choice. My inviting buddy had a great ride, and I only would have slowed her down, I think.

As you might know, Penn West closes the office before the long weekends of summer, so I've got today and tomorrow off, as well as the stat yesterday. I'm deliberately trying to relax and take it easy. I even slept in till 7:15 today, imagine that! Working lots on the first novel, and actually making some real progress.

The domestic day included washing windows. If you get the right cloth, this is a snap. Spray a water mist, swab with the cloth. Done. Next window. Linda was pleased I didn't fall off the ladder.

Our little composter is finally full and I emptied it out into one of the old Burnco bags. Linda can now use it as she needs. Once empty I sprayed it out and moved it a bit closer to the chimney where I can hide it a bit better. This is the first composter we've had that actually works. Then lawn stuff. You know.

When I was a child living in Ontario, we periodically drove past a brickyard just outside of Brampton. Bricks, bricks, and more bricks. At the time it was the place that had the largest number of identical manufactured items that I knew of. Bricks get used a lot for house construction in Ontario, and from looking at the maps, there's been a lot of houses built since I was last there. Brampton used to be it's own town, and there used to be lots of space between Snelgrove and Brampton. Not anymore. I'm sure I'd get lost if I tried driving in that area now.

Once upon a time we somehow got a bunch of bricks. Mostly they've sat beside the house. Some of the newer ones got used in a vain attempt to keep grass out of the raised beds. Then I started the project to raise the level of the walk between our house and the neighbours. You can read about how that project destroyed my boots here. There is even a photo of the bricks I'm discussing. (I'm so good to you guys!)

Today I finally got around to putting the bricks on top of the gravel. I figured this wouldn't be too hard on me, and so it was. The number of bricks was almost exactly right. The only thing now is to buy a few bags of crushed brick, and fill in some of the gaps. The nice thing about working on this project is that it's in the shade, and there's a nice breeze. Here's some photos, in blogger order, of course.

There was a nice sunset last night, but was was annoying is that I couldn't see the good part. This is where I'd like a drone. If I could have got 20 feet higher I think it would have been spectacular.

Here the before, with the nice gravel.

Flowers! This is one of the roses in the front bed. It wins the blooming championship, roses division, this year.

More yellow lilies. It's such a happy cheerful colour.

Back to the bricks, here it is done.

Lastly, a bit of an arty shot while I was waiting for the BBQ chicken to need turning. With a special Linda marinade, on Yum buns, with some nice cheese and condiments. So yummy, and such a perfect temperature to sit outside and write.

The quiet part of the day was racking some wine from one carboy to another. Then rack and stabalize another kit. The timelapse movie below isn't quite what I'd hoped for, but shows things settling out really well. The shifting light is me moving around cleaning stuff. Then started another Meglioli kit. Three kits on the go now, 2 more waiting.