The Avant Garden

it ends tomorrow, after all. I've been in the water most every chance I get. I went ahead and took a photo of the Unphotographable Herd of Arches:

This view is from the back of the pack. The arches being herded are just regular old arches, but they are surrounded by three herders who are arches plus something. I've added to them -- including a cute little baby one -- since I took the photo. No plans to change the name, even though I suppose now that I have managed to photograph them, they are no longer unphotographable, and "Poorly-photographable Herd" of Arches does not work.

Over behind Rob's house I have been going a little crazy lately. I sorta feel like summer's ending and storms come through in fall that won't let things stand very long anyway (the Floods of '94 were in Sept., for example), so what the heck? This is a personal favorite of the nine things standing:

Others seem to like this view better, so I will accommodate:
No one else has one quite like it ... 

 I added a single stone to this thing and call it "Cat-n-Mouse" now:

I think the little "mouse" rock is a cute touch ...

This photo shows most of the River, though you can't see all of the silly things: 
I do these for Rob and my neighbors ... and me.

 Today I went over to repair a downed arch on pedestal for some neighbors:
I hope this one lasts, dangit.

 I stacked this a month ago and it only stood about two weeks. But I have a better feeling about this rendition.

My back is still sore, but it's not critical. Tomorrow is the first day of Fall. I feel OK with it. I am trying to remember that no one season is any better or worse than any other; they are just different.   

they do say that, don't they? I bet the great rockstackers of the 1950s said exactly that when they did a cool stack. I went over to Rob's house today to check on the place (poor dude has two big trees down) while he vacations and decided to play a while:
I don't know what it is, but no one else has one

It's an interesting stack in that the long rock that supports her extra two arches does not touch the "ground," unlike the other renditions of this kind of stack I have done:  

Two rocks on the ground and three arches is the same ratio as 3-2-1Arch (six arches, four rocks on ground), I think. I am having a Devil of a time getting 3-2-1Arch to stand. It has some kinda hex on it.

"3-2-1Arch" found a new home and a new look this week, anchoring the southwest corner of the Avant Garden Proper behind the house:

Six arches, four rocks on the ground.

And after falling victim to Philistines who knocked it and the unphotographable herd of arches over, the Bent Ladder is back up, but without its protective ghost of July 2:
Wish that big black stone would follow me home.

The Unphotographable Herd of Arches is one of my favorite things I have standing right now. Send me an e-mail and I will send you directions if you want to see it. It's in Bent Creek Experimental Forest. I am so excited to be a part of an experiment.

Hurricane Ernesto has brought quite a bit of rain to the Carolinas, my back yard included. The flooding on Thursday got into the Meditation Garden a bit, and I suspect it will do so in the morning as well when the county workers at the North Fork Reservoir show up to open the floodgates, but that's my fault for building in a floodplain, aye? So I shan't complain, just fix it again. I have tomorrow off work and labor seems to be a common theme.