Some great ideas take a long time to manifest...here is the story of our garden overlook plaza.....

We have been creating a big, beautiful patio between the common house and the garden. It was first conceived by Fred Lanphear a long time ago and we have been working on it since 2014 when we put up a quirky bamboo shade shelter and covered it with a lovely handcrafted, artistic tent. 

We also built a little test cob oven...which was cute and fun...but was too small to cook even one pizza and all of the heat fell out of the bottom.  

In 2015 we got serious.  Well, Brian got serious and decided to really figure out how to build a proper cob oven (he is actually a rocket scientist).  So we helped him build it that summer.  

We loved the new oven!  Such great pizzas and pizza parties.  But the uneven ground was a real pain. 

In 2016 we had lots of pizza parties and experimented with the oven.  But the uneven ground was still a pain. 

So in 2017 we started leveling the ground and built the elevated patio space. That was a lot of work!  We even engaged the services of a proper front end loader.  We still found time to have plenty of pizza parties....and in the end we have a beautiful, flat, garden overlook patio.  

In 2018 we got lucky.  We had this idea that we would install a cement counter similar to the one at the Beacon Hill Food Forest...but were a little short on the skills to accomplish that.  But low and behold Larry Walton (an intern for that year) joined us with exactly those skills!!!  Amazing. 

It is beautiful...but it still needs the mosaic to be added (that is what the aluminum sections are for)...maybe this summer?

This spring we are adding steps from the common house level down to the plaza.  The plan includes a small stage two steps above the main level of the plaza.  We are inviting those of you who have a "heart connection" with Songaia to join us in etching our names in the bricks used to pave the stage.  
As we have sent out inquires to former interns to ask if they want their name on the stage we have gotten great updates from them.....check out our next blogs to hear where they are and what they are doing.