Finished!

The ceiling is finished! One or two minor things to add later,  some more leaves to soften the edges, (you have to live with something a little while to see what you might like to add or take away,  luckily so far there is nothing to take away!)

Here is a reminder of what the ceiling looked like after Graham sanded it down,

and here it is finished, it’s difficult to get a good shot, this is the best I can do without actually jumping in the pool:

We feel quite pleased that we’ve actually finished it, it seemed never-ending at some stages, but now looking back it’s almost as though someone else painted it, and I wonder what all the fuss was about. I want to take one last photo once everything is installed in the space, so that will be in a couple of weeks, and I’ll take a few close ups too. Maybe I should take a pic of the mirror image in the pool, I’ll try that as well.

Meanwhile I keep my hand in with sketches and ipad paintings. We visited the gardens of Marqueyssac recently, they are absolutely stunning, with randomly-shaped hedging mixed with geometric forms of topiary as far as the eye can see. The château is built on a high outcrop of rock, and the gardens extend along the ridge, with breath-taking views all around, we were lucky to have a sunny day casting such deep green shadows, you feel you are in a surreal green cartoon-like world. Here are a couple of photos and thumbnail sketches, plus a couple of ipad sketches.

My own lovingly sculpted topiary of about 12 years has been ravaged by a new invader from Asia, the box-tree caterpillar, which has no predator, except me, I’ve been squashing them whenever I see them, not a nice job, I hate to kill, but these are apparently a serious threat to all box hedging;  I’ve sprayed the remaining leaves with a stinking concoction of rotting garlic and soap  but to no avail, they’ve won,  my poor exotic bird looks like a dried up old hen, I can only hope that nature will find a way to for her to recuperate, for the destruction appears to have reached a new stage, I can see no caterpillars, yet it continues to look as though something is still munching at it.

This photo was taken a few years ago:

The culprit

becomes this moth:

 

 

and devastates likes this:

Lastly an ipad sketch of our wisteria, which has been wonderful this year, with it’s heady perfume filling the air.

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