Cindy, that's awful news to get early in the week, but if anyone is indispensable, you are, and the boss knows it. The light on the Mendo Coast, the cottage, the cliffs -- the perfect getaway! Planning for spring is a great way to ignore the onset of winter. I'm digging and planting away myself, potting up seedlings, generally making messes. Love how fall makes you guys reach for your cameras ;) I did finally bring home a castor bean plant this fall. I think mine is 'New Zealand Purple.' It's an invasive roadside weed and is perennial here, not an annual, so I've steered clear up til now. We'll see if the multitudes of seedlings I get from it and the bronze fennel are deal breakers, but what substance and body they give to wispy stuff. I posted a warm welcome last night to Candy, wandered away from the puter before posting and fell into bed around 8ish -- now I see the post evaporated overnight, which also included chatting with Cyn over laughing spouses and how Marty howls, wheezes, becomes utterly breathless over the disco scene in the movie Airplane! Of course I had to check youtube, found the scene, played it, Marty wanders in and looks over my shoulder and does a reprise of his laugh attack, so I had to confess to him he was being callously used for idyll fodder ;) Mitch's hero Irving Penn has died at a ripe age -- very good obit in the NYT. Also on NPR intermittently yesterday was the winner of the Booker prize Hilary Mantel's book on Thomas Cromwell, Wolf Hall -- sounds right up the alley of idyll Tudor fans. (A story for Woody about a terrier mix named Jen who runs the fuel dock. I may have posted before about Jen. Countless times Marty has come home to tell me about her shenanigans and his boundless admiration of her. As he pulls up in the pilot boat to the fuel dock, there's Jen patroling the five-fingered dock tirelessly, relentlessly -- I think we can say obsessively, all in the cause of keeping seabirds from landing and pooping on the docks. Jen literally doesn't rest all day. Her predecessor, named Diesel, had no such inclination, amiable enough but not a driven working dog like Jen. So...we finally got the scoop on what makes Jen tick. Marty found out couple days ago that she was trained by the Air Force to keep runways clear of birds, at the cost of approx 6 grand. Somehow the fuel dock owner got ahold of Jen, and the rest is fuel dock history. Now Marty keeps a little bucket of dog biscuits on the pilot boat and slips a few to the hard-working wonder dog. She'll take the biscuit politely but immediately drops it and races off to catch marauding birds in the act. Not a drop of bird poop has landed on that dock since Jen's arrival. I can't wait to meet her and will bring camera for action photos.) Off to slave the day away. Waves to all.

Mine is getting filled as we speak and the area will continue to be a work in progress with an Ivory travertine patio floor down the road. This is a modest existing pool remodel. We took out the silly spa with its four puny jets, odd size, and no light and made it into a conversation niche. In the before design you couldn’t heat up the spa without heating up the entire pool. Surface- Wet Edge New Zealand Tropical- peal matrix but with the deeper blue/green dye used in the Chilean Tahoe. The last picture with spa and orange coping is the Before .

This is my stone wall. It is actually stone-faced raised beam. The stone is Granbury (from north central Texas). Just over the star mosaic is a sheer descent waterfall and the two slanted pots are also waterfall features. These are earlier photos, but we are still trying to get the plaster in. I will post more when all is complete. The stonework really didn't add that much to the overall build cost, but I feel added a lot of character. It will probably outlast me!!! Let me know if you have any other questions. Here is a link that might be useful: Stone Wall

Ohhh trux......I'm so excited for you!!!!..I Know reading how worried you were!..It has turned out So Beautiful!!!..Please keep posting pictures!!! I "CANNOT" wait to see the Finale!!! In regards to, IF they would allow the Pool to be done 'before' the Addition, Regal Pools, will NOT even "think" about putting the Pebble Sheen in the pool YET....AND I totally agree with them with all the scraps of wood and shingles and the overall "construction" "Regal" Personally will not allow anything happening to the integrity of the gunite...IM IMPATIENT...and Want it NOW....but I totally Understand!!! They Warrant and Stand by their build enough to "deny" me the Pebble Sheen that I "desire"...and I totally "Respect" their reasoning behind this!!!.. Even at this stage in the ENTIRE project (which is a Huge Build).....Regal Pools has been so "Patient" with me (Again..NOT an easy task!)...and I totally Trust them!...hard to say that about some builds!..But .. seriously...Josh has been a God Send! Keep posting Trux!! I cannot wait to see the finished Design!!!