A New View.... Drone Photography

Do you remember the 587 foot stonewall I built back in 2008-2011? I photographed it and blogged about it here and here.  Over the holidays my daughter and husband spent some time flying their drone over our home and taking photographs from new angles. I especially loved this one of my stone wall.

I love this photograph and the texture of the trees. The stonewall starts in the lower left, turns right and continues out of the frame in the upper right. It is a long stonewall! If you look carefully you can see the top of our sculpture creation from Sculpture Week 2015. I never blogged about that but it is on my to-do list.

Previous Posts of Interest:

• Stone Wall complete!
• Stone Wall Progress
• Curb Appeal • Well Kind of
• On Landscaping

©2016 Ashbee Design, Marji Roy

Stone Wall Complete!

Today I have a sore back and soaring spirits. Yesterday I finished THE WALL. I have been working on this wall for 4 1/2 years and it is now done measuring in at 587 feet long! I have built many, many stonewalls during my years here on Ashbee Hill but this is by far the longest. Here is the final end cap finished on Saturday, October 22, 2011.

It ends the same way it began - in a fairly plain Jane fashion but oh, the beauty in the details in between! Below is an end cap leading to a bar way with a rock that was just going to stay right where it was.

The wall makes a right angle turn at about the 300 foot point with half running east-west and half going north-south.

It has 3 tree circles - locations where I had to route the wall around trees that were in the way.

And six bar ways for walkers to pass through.

The project started in the spring of 2007 because I was cleaning up the edge of the back yard. That is where this particular wall starts.  There was an old wall there, never built as a wall but more as a pile of rock to clear the field. I started rebuilding. This project was more challenging than many of my walls because I was using the rock that was there - or more precisely just the "less than ideal" rock that was there. All good rock was being pulled and saved for important retaining walls down near the house. Here is the first section completed.

But then I just kept going. Here is a great shot of what the former wall looked like. I had to disassemble it before rebuilding.

I generally worked during the cool days of spring before the black flies arrived in May, then again in June until the deer ticks made working impossible. I didn't work during the hot summer months but would start up again as soon as the days started to cool in the fall and work until it was too cold. 

Watching the wall through all seasons has brought us much joy, even long before it was done.

Spring construction.......

It was so rewarding watch the green shoots start to appear all around me as I built.

Summer Sunshine....

Fall Foliage...

Winter White...

And then the winter of 2011 where we would ski right over the top of the wall.....

The wall borders an area we call "The Glade". Beautiful woodland grass grows naturally there and we have worked hard to clear the deadfall. We see it as a woodland garden, and we are building sculptures to populate it!

Previous Posts of Interest:

• Stone Wall Progress
• Curb Appeal • Well Kind of
• On Landscaping

I am linking this post to...

• Blue Cricket Design
• Not Just a House Wife
• House of Hepworths
• Be Different Act Normal

©2011 Ashbee Design, Marji Roy

Stone Wall Season

The summer heat has gone (and hopefully the deer ticks as well) so stone wall season is back.  I spend as much free time as I can muster working on stone walls. I have been in the process of rebuilding one that snakes through our woods. It is a project that I have been working on for about four years now and it is nearing completion. I finally got back outdoors this week to continue. This looking back over what I built over the past two years.......

and this is looking forward to what I need to finish.....

Building stone walls is a passion of mine. I have been doing it for the thirty-two years we have lived here and hope to continue for many more.  I do move smaller rocks now!

It is great therapy!

Previous Posts of Interest:

• Stone Wall Progress
• Curb Appeal • Well Kind of
• On Landscaping

©2011 Ashbee Design, Marji Roy

Wheels in the House? - Oh Yeah!

Apartment Therapy did a post today on using wheels in your house and asked to see how other's incorporated them.  Here are some photo's from around my home because wheels? - I have lots!

The first photos are not only of wheels - but better yet moving wheels!  These are kinetic sculptures by David Roy (my husband) and I am lucky enough to have a changing variety of sculptures as he designs new ones.  It is an incredible benefit although it does mean we put more holes in our sheet rock and have to paint walls more frequently than the normal homeowner. I always save little jars of touch-up paint for the various walls. Here are the "kinetic wheels" currently in my home.

Visit David's website at Wood That Works.com to see these sculptures. Below is a video showing Fireworks in motion.

But I also have vintage wheels as well. There is a collection nestled into the corner of my truly useless balcony. The balcony was a holdover from the vision I had of the perfect house. I wanted a balcony so I designed one in and I have it. Better in concept than in practice but a great place for collections.....

I also use found wheels as garden ornaments. Finding well designed garden ornaments is a treasure hunt. Most garden centers stock gnomes, Madonnas and mushrooms. It is hard to find well designed garden decor. I have chosen to used found art instead.  

So I got my Restoration Hardware catalog recently and what did I find?

Stunning!

Previous Posts of Interest:

• Bicycle Chain Inspiration
• Gears and Wood Dynamic Combination
• One of a Finds

©2011 Ashbee Design, Marji Roy

Stone Wall Progress

I have mentioned several times that I have been working on some stone walls.  The weather has been absolutely perfect for several days (low humidity, cool temps and black flies are gone!) so I have really been spending as many hours per day as my back will allow.  You need to understand that dry stonewall building is a passion of mine.  I discovered it 30 years ago and have been building them off and on for years since.  I am currently rebuilding an old farm wall that meanders along our hilltop. I have been working on this particular project for over three years and it is a long wall!

This is what the old farm wall looks like when I begin.  Calling it a wall is a generous description. In reality it is a stone pile lining what was a field about 80 years ago. I have to completely disassemble what is there and then try to use the rock to create something with a little more order. This is challenging because I am using existing rock, not rock that I have selected for its appropriateness.  This is what i looks like today looking back along the distance that I have been working on this spring.

I am not done yet - about 50 feet to go.  Hopefully this section will be finished this year.  Then I can start on my Andy Goldsworthy inspired wall!  We visit Storm King in New York State regularly just to see the Andy Goldsworthy walls.  Here are a few photos I have taken. They are incredibly inspiring.

There are several books available about the stone work of Andy Goldsworthy.  I recommend them all.

• Wall by Andy Goldsworthy
• Stone by Andy Goldsworthy
• Touching Nature by Andy Goldsworthy
• Rivers and Tides DVD set by Andy Goldsworthy

Previous Posts of Interest:

• Fiddlehead
• Curb Appeal • Well Kind of
• On Landscaping

©2011 Ashbee Design, Marji Roy

Curb Appeal • Well Kind Of

The term "curb appeal" makes me laugh when I think of my town. We have no curbs. We have no sidewalks. We have one stop light.  This is home.

Our home is at the end of a long driveway and it isn't clearly visible from the road. When I work on improving curb appeal I am working on the entrance to my driveway. Soon after building our home (in 1978) I started building stonewalls because we are located on a significant hillside. The hill needed to be retained, we were young and ambitious, and we had no money but plenty of rock. I taught myself how to build dry construction stonewalls.  I built one stone wall that framed the culvert and retained the hillside at the beginning of our driveway. Unfortunately, I have had to rebuild it many times and had given up. Unidentified vehicles have repeatedly "bumped" into my stone retaining wall leaving what had been puzzled together, in disarray.

This is the "before" shot.  It was in sad shape. This year David suggested instead of rebuilding it, let's resize it and replace most of it with pachysandra and ferns. It would repair itself when errant drivers felt a need to back into it. I thought that was a great idea.  When the sun came out last weekend I started in.

David assisted with demolition and digging - I hate to dig! It is such a challenge in this rocky New England soil. David doesn't like it either but he appreciates my stone walls so he digs for me!

To a stone wall builder the following is a beautiful shot- a field of relatively flat stone, displayed in a single layer in position for building.  All of these rocks came from the previous wall and many were imported to this site 30 years ago from my parents' and grandparents' homes several towns away. (They have beautiful flat rock there!) Although I do find and treasure some flat rocks here on our property most are what I would kindly call "free form" - not flat but not round either, certainly challenges.

As we demolished it was clear that the project was going into high speed. Most of the entrance to our driveway was blocked by the stone. It is a goal in stone wall work to limit the number of times you have to move a rock.  I needed to have this wall back together again by the end of the day or move the rocks out of the way.

I decided to move the northern end back into the hill which is why David was digging for me.  I still needed a stone wall at that end but felt if it was backed in further, it might be saved from bumps. This is the lunch break photo below.

I kept working and by supper time I was one tired lady but the wall did snake its way around the big tree and curl back into the hillside right below the main collision zone.

I had done a good job with rock estimation.  David did truck away a small load for another wall and brought in some processed aggregate for the base but then the rain returned.  That was a good thing because my tired body needed a break!

Our DIY project for this weekend was to finish the landscaping.  We transplanted many pachysandra plants and three Christmas Ferns plus brought in a load of dark cedar mulch. I worked carefully to allow the natural ferns already on the hillside to stay and flourish.

This is the after shot.  The pachysandra covers the hillside to the left and it will take a year or two to fill in and completely cover the hillside.  We do know it does well here and the deer only eat it during a really tough winter.

Job done! What's next?  A Memorial Day Picnic of course!  Enjoy yours.

Other Blog Posts of Interest:

• On Landscaping...
• Fiddlehead
• Rebuilding Stone Stacks

Books of Interest from Amazon

• Stone by Stone: The Magnificent History in New England's Stone Walls by Robert Thorson
• Exploring Stone Walls: A Field Guide to New England's Stone Walls by Robert Thorsen
• Building Stone Walls by John Vivian
• Building Dry-Stack Stone Walls by Rob Gallagher
• A Guide to Dry Stone Walling by Andy Radford

©2011 Ashbee Design, Marji Roy

On Landscaping....

At last spring is descending on southern New England and it is time to turn my attention to our "gardens". David and I have developed a different approach to landscaping and gardening and, because I plan to be sharing experiences, I think you'd benefit for an explanation of this approach.

We have lived on Ashbee Hill since 1978 and in those 33 years we have learned the following:

• I do not have a green thumb.
• Grass will never grown on our heavily shaded front yard. (We have replanted more times than I care to remember.)
• Ninety-five precent of all purchased plants, shrubs, etc. will be viewed as candy by our local deer herd and demolished.
• Vegetables are for the wildlife, not people.
• We love watching things grow.

Our landscaping efforts are based on that which will thrive in heavy shade, poor soil, and regular deer attention. We have been transplanting things we find in our surrounding forest. And as we do so, we think about all seasons.

April around here generally means gray woods, brown lawns, the tips of daffodils popping up and happily the first blossoms. In other words, except for those very welcomed early daffodils, there is little color. I rely on shapes and texture to add interest to our front garden.

Our front garden used to be our front lawn but we had to replace the septic tank a couple years back. Instead of replacing the lawn with more grass that dies we decided to turn the entire area into a garden of paths, ferns, sculptures, and experiments. We hiked through the woods examining rocks and used them to create sculptures as focal points. They are the spring center pieces because all else is flat. These two (above and below photos) combined the rugged rock of Connecticut woodland with the smooth stones of the Rhode Island shore. Both have stood the test of time and seasons. They add to the garden when surrounded by ferns, blanketed in snow or being the spring focal point. Right now they visually anchor the barren garden.

As a side note -  creating rock sculptures is a great date.  My husband and I work together, find the rocks on our walks, devise engineering schemes to lift, move and place them. And then have an afternoon of rearranging and positioning until we agree on the right solution. We have wonderful time, end up with garden sculpture and the price is right.

We have also planted some ornamental grasses.  We purchased these at Garden in the Woods, a wonderful and inspiring resource located in Framingham, MA. It is worth a day trip if you live in southern New England. During the off season they provide visual interest as mounds styled with punk hair cuts.

And the staple of our landscape is Pachysandra. It is a very durable ground cover that the deer will nibble on during a very bad winter but generally it doesn't interest them. David and I have been transplanting pachysandra for 30 years now and we have thick, lush patches to set off the stone walls and walk ways. It stays green year round so helps usher in the spring as we wait for other buds to start adding color.

The gardening season has begun here on Ashbee Hill. We raked out the leaf and winter debris last weekend, and started discussing what additions and changes we'll make this season, as we wonder which of last year's experiments will return and grow again.

I also started working on my stone wall in the woods again - more to follow.

©2011 Ashbee Design, Marji Roy

Rebuilding Stone Stacks

I create with stone - stone walls, stone sculptures, stone stacks. Here in New England the material is abundant, free and endlessly variable.

Today the sun is shinning, the chill and snow are nearly gone. I decided to rebuild my stone stacks. These were first created as a solution to hungry deer. Every purchased shrub I planted was food for the deer. My solution was to build ornamental stone trees.

This grouping sits perched on the edge of our garden looking out over the ravine. Rocks gathered from our property were used to construct them. They are all balanced and the heavy snows of winter did indeed topple them but they were quick to rebuild.

I have built little stone towers in assorted nooks around the property. This one, built of river stone,  is nestled into the hillside near the stone steps leading up to David's studio.

And this tower with a decidedly oriental inspiration is created from the rectangular rocks that are so rare in our woods. I save these rocks whenever I discover them because they are precious and can be used in so many creative ways. This stack is perched on an old tree stump and is remarkably the least stable of all.

David and I have been working on our property for 35 years now, collecting stones, stacking stones, and creating landscapes that can be shared with the deer. I took this photo right outside David's studio last fall.  

Deer sightings have been few since the heavy snows of January but David and I did have one bound through the woods on our walk last week.

©2011 Ashbee Design, Marji Roy