Fountain!

The saga of my fountain is a story fraught with ups and downs, finger-nail-biting moments . . .

The "new" house came with a lovely water feature, a small three-bowl fountain in the back yard on the lower terrace, just outside the studio, and framed by the large window in the bathroom.  It was love at first sight with me.  Charles, however, saw it with other than rose-colored glasses.  He remembered ten years of the swimming pool in Smyrna.  Hard to believe, I know, but this small little pool with innocent cherubs cast into it became part of his hatred of all things water.  The fountain was set in a small pool, so he had to get down onto the ground to clear the pump in the autumn.  And it had to be drained and closed in the winter, just like the pool.  But, somehow, I was never able to completely grasp Charles' connection between a 20' x 40' swimming pool and a small verdis green fountain.

Then, last winter, the unspeakable happened:  the ground froze and heaved the fountain to one side.  Charles had tied it up so well, however, that it did not fall, and we didn't really realize what had happened until the next spring.  I thought it only needed to be re-set in its little pool, but that was not to be.  I was broken-hearted.  Charles gave an Apache war whoop and all but danced around the scene of desolation.  He had it disassembled and out of the ground before lunch.  It was with great effort that I kept him from sledging it and carrying the pieces off to the county dump-- I reminded him he would have to pay to do that, and things immediately settled down.

Because I believe that all serviceable things have a life and that the life of this lovely fountain was not yet ended, I called my friend Jill and asked if she and Joe would like a fountain for their yard.  She said yes, and I was so happy.  Joe spends all his spare time working in their yard, and it is simply the most splendid garden spot in the Knoxville area.  The back yard drops away, and he has done a remarkable job with stone there, even creating a sheltered place for a fish pond.  It is hard to carry on a conversation sensibly, there is so much distracting beauty there.

I digress.

Joe put the fountain in, and Jill and he are happy with it.  A nice ending, yes?

This left me, however, without a fountain of my own.  Discussing this with Charles has been difficult; it has been a brier patch in our existence since last spring.  Charles had one problem as the result of the passed-along fountain:  a 54" diameter hole, 2' deep, in the back yard.  It began to fill up with water when it rained, and we were afraid one of the grandchildren would fall in it.  So we planted a dogwood tree there, circling it with stone and planting dwarf zinnias within the circle.  It is lovely.

But the fountain?

Well, the fountain problem is now solved (no; I have not murdered and buried Charles on the property).  After some months of looking at small back-yard fountains, we found one that does not require a grown man to crawl about on all fours to attend it.  We were particularly attracted to this one because it is a large, low bowl on a wide base, one that will not tip and that will be a pleasant place for our two Adorables to play.   A more traditional fountain is tall, and Ethan is short enough that he would grasp the rim of the bowl and try to pull himself up--which would only have disastrous results.  I have a small bowl of beautiful green sea-glass and glass droplets that they can toss in and fish out to their hearts' content.

Now, we have a small wait-- the area for the fountain has not been finished, yet.  Two sides of the lower terrace of the back yard are mulched with layers of (from bottom to top) medium-sized stone dyed red, red mulch (that has faded to grey), and fragmented pine straw.  This brown disaster has been a thorn in my side since we purchased the otherwise quite nice house.  Warren, the young college student who does our yard for us, said he would lay stone there for us, and when the flagstones are down, the fountain will come next.  We will be able to enjoy the fountain from the sun room, and the Adorables will be able to play there in plain sight of anxious eyes.

Don't you love it when a plan comes together?