Earth Loom And A Beautiful Deck, Gazebo

My Sweetie and I both loves nature and wildlife and we feed our birds year around. This past summer I discovered a book called, "Zati, The Art of Weaving A Life" by Susan Barrett Merrill. In this book Susan helps her readers understand the centuries-old metaphor, entertains us with beautifully written archetypal stories, and guides us to a more fully understood life of love, awareness, and healing. This book has stunning photos coupled with eloquently written text help open doors to our inner thoughts and coax our inner and outer lives into synch, and show us that peace is possible. I showed "My Sweetie" a photo of the "Earth Loom" and he told me he could create one for me. It is 10 foot high and 5 foot wide and he made this in two hours. Isn't it wonderful?

In this book there was many different kinds of "Looms" shown. I fell in love with the "Earth Loom". It is a living symbol, planted into the ground and the weaving are a gift of friendship. Earth Looms may be made with indigenous materials and my husband and I chose Sunflowers, Cornstalks, Cattails, Autumn Leaves in which the birds and squirrels can feel off of during the winter months. This afternoon my sweetie and I both weaved in our findings from nature and truly enjoyed this art of weaving.

This is an up close photos of the bounty of nature we weaved into our Earth Loom.

My Sweetie is a very kind, caring and giving person and a very talented wood artist too. Last summer he renovated our screen-in sun room and created it into a living space that we can now used 7 to 8 months of the year. The next two photos are of the finished deck and gazebo. Then the rest are the photos shows the process of how he created this wonderful project for us.

This Spring we decided to add on a small porch off the sun room which turned out to be a lovely deck instead. I mentioned in passing that I always dreamed of having a Gazebo so I could sit outside even when it was raining and listen to the sounds of nature and not get wet. "My Sweetie" said, if you would like a Gazebo and then we will add a Gazebo too. I could hardly believe he was serious but he truly meant it. "My Sweetie" started this project the middle of May and finished it the middle of September. He created this lovely Deck and Gazebo all by himself working on it after work for an hour or two and on weekends when we were not busy with family commitments.

While "My Sweetie" worked on the Deck and Gazebo I decided to add a couple more flower gardens around it. Then with the help from my Mom we created the patio block sidewalk along the front and side. Now this was really hard work but we did it together. I will never forget how wonderful it was to work with my mother on this project. We actually finished it while there was a misty rain coming down.

This is a photo of "My Sweetie" hard at work. How he ever did all this work by himself is beyond me. He is such a very talented wood crafter.

We only had a couple of weeks in September to really enjoy our new deck and gazebo but plan to have lots of family BBQ next summer.

I give thanks everyday for my wonderful husband. I feel very blessed that our lives came together. WE will be married 5 years this coming November and I hope we have many more wonderful years to spend being together.

Hugs,