A monastery can never have too many outbuildings. Obviously! Al’s latest construction is something that was originally conceived as a log store with a working area in the middle, but it’s coming out as more of a generally useful covered space with good light.
The Great Booth is not quite finished – Al is still collecting the last few extra-long pallets to break down for roof timbers – but doesn’t it look great?
Every garden needs a water feature, and it should be accessible to the small beasts. How to achieve this in the cloister has been something of a puzzle, but eventually we came up with a plan. Of course, Rumwoldstow has an old Roman well still in place, doesn’t it?
The first step was to purchase a round pond liner and for the mighty-thewed Brother Julian to embed it in concrete. Yeah, I know. ‘Authentish” is our watchword!
Because of rain, Al erected the gazebo to protect Chris the stonemason. It ran off overnight, however (i.e. blew down).
Doesn’t it look smart? The water level should be around ground level, so although it’s too high for a real well, you will look down at it and I think the overall effect will be pretty good, especially once some ferns and things have grown in. I’ll put some blocks in the water inside the two archways, to make it easy for beasts to climb out.
In other news, work is underway on the gatehouse (also, of course, Roman). Al is casting blocks for the archway pillars, and Chris is starting to lay out the guardrooms.
Yeah, breeze blocks aren’t very authentic, but the cast stone arch will look great and we’ll probably render the breeze blocks. After all, one must render unto Caesar…< ducks >
