Today was Pentacost, a holiday in the Christian church marking the outpouring of the Holy Spirit to the apostles. While we were out in the garden, Mom G told me in Germany the peony is referred to as the Pfingstrose or the “Pentecost Rose” since the plants tend to bloom on Pentecost. My first peony bush of three began opening about three days ago and is now full of very pale pink, baby powder-scented blooms.

Also this past weekend, my family drove here to help my Better Half and I construct a pergola for our backyard. We began work around 10am on Saturday and worked until around 9pm. We were up again at 8am and worked until about 7pm today. It was a lot of hard work and everyone ended the days hot, tired and dirty, but I think we did a great job and I am completely geeked about this new focal point in the garden.

Things I did to help prepare for the project:

• agonized over cedar vs. treated lumber
• called the city to check if I needed a building permit
• asked how far the structure had to be from the property lines
• marked the 10’x10′ footprint with stakes and twine to decide on location
• looked up the frost line for the area
• called MISS DIG to have the utility lines marked
• ordered all lumber and hardware and had it delivered before my help arrived
• bought tons of food and beverages for my workers
• purchased new blades for the jigsaw and sandpaper for the sander
• printed out multiple copies of the blueprints/plans
• patience, patience, patience

Things I learned (aka. should have done):

• hot, sunny weather calls for sunscreen
• read, reread, and read once more the plans and make sure they are thoroughly understood
• makes notes of errors in the plan
• templates for arches can be redrawn in Illustrator, scaled up to size and printed ahead of time
• a tweak in one part of the plans often leads to additional tweaks
• check over the lumber order on delivery to make sure it is correct
• make sure the new blades actually fit the jigsaw and are long enough for the project
• even more patience