The building of the pergola in time for the party

One of the essential elements in the party planning is space maximisation, so the long-fingered plan to build a pergola in the back garden came to the forefront in January 2008. The plan was to construct something with a roof so that people could shelter there if the day of the party turned out to be wet. The son of a friend - a really talented cabinetmaker called Paul O'Mahony - agreed to work with us on designing and building a wooden structure in the back garden. I had some ideas, Paul shaped them into an actual design, and he and a few friends built it over the following number of weeks - this was in the middle of the wettest months in Dublin. Finally, we painted it a pale green and it is now settling in. As the garden is a typical inner city courtyard and little else, the pergola is now a significant proportion of the entire space, and even if I say so myself, it is a real addition! Now that the weather has actually improved, we are all spending quite a lot of time sitting in it. Of course, the rest of the garden is also getting a bit of attention as well - my plans to turn the usable soil space into a mostly edible productive area is now taking shape. Subject of my next blog!