Day 9

Yesterday I had despaired of finishing this project anytime soon. Certainly, the prospect of finishing it by the end of the July4 weekend seemed far-fetched. But, I am happy to report, indeed, I do believe, all things being equal, I may actually finish tomorrow.

Today was the first day that involved minimal heavy duty lifting and carting. I started in the a.m. by finishing off laying the path...

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and the "satelite patio" area:

Astoundingly, I have used every single flagstone, bar 2! Talk about "waste not, want not"! Here are the lonely two that were left:

I then filled in the gaps...using my well-honed (!) masonry skills to chop and shatter three flagstones that I'd kept aside as "fillers". Here's moi in action:

and here are the tools of the trade:

After "minding the gaps", I then filled in the stones with sand. For the first time, a sense of patio-hood emerged:

The came the laborious task of individually "balancing" each stone -- adjusting it so that the surface was roughly even (very roughly). That took the rest of the day.

Tomorrow there's more of that, afer which, some "window-dressing" and then it should, kinda, be done.

The wisteria is beginning to bloom (in celebration?)

The end draweth nigh...on the next page...