♫ Saturday in the Park ♫

 We arrived at Seau's at 0900 to watch the SDSU Aztecs take on the Michigan Wolverines. By halftime we were on our way for a sight seeing trip to Mt. Helix. Yes, unfortunately, the game did not go very well.

After our sight seeing trip it was back home, where I had a well deserved nap ☺.  Later we decided to go to Balboa Park for inspiration on the fountain and landscape.

It is always an adventure in California and today was not different. We first witnessed a group of people doing "Thriller". A guy was actually helping people learn choreography to the dance. It was kinda cool. He is the one in the black tank top.

Today there were a lot of Quinceañera happening. Also we noticed some people in CosPlay on the Spreckles stage. There was a small art fair and some guy with his face painted like a cat playing some kind of instrument and there was also a harp player.
 
We wanted to put some rocks at the bottom of our fountain pool and we just happened to find an example at The Prado. We will use darker rocks but it has a really nice effect.


All in all a very nice day at the park.

quinceañera

CosPlay..AKA...freaks.

She was actually really good

I told you his face was like a cat ☺

 

If you would like to see the high resolution video click here. 

Botanical Garden

As we close in on the last major part of this courtyard project, the plants, we took an inspiration trip to The Water Conservation Garden at Cuyamaca College. Many of our plants are either native to the region or are drought tolerant, which is what we wanted. However we also did not want it to look like an Arizona yard that was all rocks and cactus.

In our design we have 40 plus types of plants that cover a wide spectrum of colors. Included in the photos below are some of the plants.

Heavenly Bamboo

Crepe Myrtle (this one might be on the chopping block)

Japanese Boxwood. Between the patio and house.

Mexican Sage

Aeonium

Echeveria Afterglow

Sticks on Fire

This is not going in the garden but I thought the cork tree was kinda cool. This is what  they make wine corks out of.

 They had six types of grass and how much water each type used in a year..

 I could not pass up a chance to take a photo of a humming bird. We hope to have many of them in our garden.

We do have a lot of these guys and he was just posing for me.

Courtyard project 3, 4 and 5

Been a few weeks since I last wrote about our project and a lot has been accomplished. We installed the conduit for the water and electrical, laid the pavers, put the locking sand in the joints, and installed the fountain.

We began on Thursday Sept 1st laying the pavers and it took that day and all day Friday.  On Saturday I had to exchange the rental car for a and truck then go to Home Depot to pick up the tile saw. I arrived back home around 1030 and our friends who were helping out had already arrived.  All day Saturday I cut the pavers and they marked and laid them.  Everything went fairly smooth until around 7pm. We were losing day light and were almost done with the cuts. Apparently you cannot do loud construction after 7pm, as one of my neighbors so "eloquently" discussed with me. So that day ended on a sour note.

On the bright side we were able to find enough left over cuts to cover the remaining three or four spots. We also had around 440 bricks and 1 2/3rd bags of sand left over.  We gave away the sand and sold the bricks for .33 each. Not bad because I did not have to load them and take them back to HD.

I got the interlocking sand at HD just as the GREAT BLACKOUT descended on San Diego. Needless to say we persevered, got the sand spread out and watered down.

The only big problem is there is now a haze on the bricks from the sand but we think we have the solution.... vinegar!!!! Yes will solve just about all your problems.  Stay tuned for that.

Last but not least, we painted on the water proof paint and set up the fountain.  It works like a charm, however we will probably need to paint the inside as it is too white.  Also we must figure out what type of cap to put on the ledge.

Installing that fountain was a bear because the main bowl weighs between 150 and 200 lbs (Solid concrete).

Sorry for the herky jerky of the video but I had to time lapse it otherwise you would have to sit through about 7 minutes of video.