A view of the pond looking toward the studio

When going to the studio and making the 40' commute this is the long route.

This is my continuous work in progress. A living sculpture, a retreat and my commute to work. As I stated before this pond, stream and waterfall is something we have been working on for 10 years. This past week we finally finished it! O.k. there is still some things I would like to do.

First picture looks from the porch of our house to the small shed left, and the corner of the studio steps. When ever I come home from work ( 40′ commute) I take the long way!

Here is the view that clients see when they enter the backyard. The sculpture studio is downstairs and that is my office window in the loft. I can see the pond from my office. The stream runs along the walkway, as you walk to the studio. Tilly the turtle and her baby climb this stream and waterfall daily!

A view looking at the house.

My husband hates the purple chairs, but I wanted to bring some color to this back yard and purple was my color of choice!

Tilly and her baby have come down to the lower pond after construction. I think they approve. Here tilly is coming out of the pond ( lower right corner) There is rock that is supposed to stick out of the pond, but we had a lot of rain. Guess I’ll put my wet suit on and get back in to lift it up!

Thisis the pond stream and bridge as seen from my office window

Stepping out of the office window onto the roof is the only way to get a picture like this. You can see a bit up the stream. The bench and chair in the middle of the yard is where my husband and I have our meetings, though I have to say we did take our shoes off and stick our feet in the pond the other day. We both thought that was a perfect meeting spot as well.

( you can see that about the middle of this picture is some liner. Here is the unfinished spot. A small beach is going here, for birds, easy out for Tilly, watering hole for dogs etc.)

A great place to sit and contemplate

It is my oasis, you could hardly tell that you are in the middle of the big city of Houston. Only downfall to this is getting a life size sculpture or bronze back and forth from the front, but we have done it and have tried to keep that in mind when putting together the walkways.

Certainly a living sculpture.

Here is a little pond biology. Dragon fly nymphs climb from our pond onto stalks and then hang there. Soon the dragon fly burst forth and hangs to dry. Once dry, they fly away to come back later and mate with another dragon fly or lay eggs. They are one of my favorite things about the pond. While getting ready to work on the pond this garden container that I created called “nativity” was sitting by the pond. I think I used it to weight down something during the winter. I looked closely and just about the place that an angel would be hanging there was this dragon fly. I thought it was so cool, I just had to share it.

The foundry e-mailed today, wanting the bench that Dick Hathaway was created on. I had it loaded into the van and brought it over to them. When arriving to the foundry the Hathaway sculpture was everywhere! Pull yourself together Professor! Miguel the master foundry man was diligently working on putting him together. It won’t be long. What was that quote that the professor used to say, “My body is just something I use to carry around my head.”