What a difference a year makes! (Or a year minus 2 weeks.) this afternoon I flew the drone. This afternoon I captured some new drone images. It’s always pretty remarkable to get a bird’s-eye view of the environment we inhabit at ground level. But today’s flight offers an especially poignant picture of the icehouse courtyard today and a year ago.
It had been a remarkably industrious 3-4 months. I’d been hands-on with the team virtually every single day. Much of my summer had been spent building stone walls and carpentering cabinetry and staircase railings. And yet the finish line had continued to retreat like a shimmering mirage.
This is first photo was made about 50 months ago on September 10, 2024.
The stone walls were still incomplete, and the cobblestones had only just begun to be laid for the terrace. The privacy enclosure that forms the south wall of the courtyard was still a conceptual rough draft somewhere in my gray matter, and none of the plantings had been ordered, much less planted. There was still steel edging to be designed and installed, topsoil to be spread and leveled, and lawns to be planted.
As of now, September 24, 2023, the icehouse courtyard has coalesced into the pipe dream that played out in my mind. Stonework, carpentry, and landscaping are ready to be celebrated. In fact, we’ve been sharing and enjoying this space with family and friends all summer. Now it’s our privilege to gather the many contributors to this project for a grateful feast in the midst of all that they labored into existence. This Saturday the icehouse courtyard will welcome back as many as are available for a celebratory barbecue and reunion in the sanctuary that they created.
We can’t wait!
What do you think?