Guard dogs!

 

Guard dogs!

We had some workmen here a few days ago, draining and servicing the pool. It’s something that has to be done every five years.

Roxy had a field day ‘seeing them off,’ except that all her noise was ineffective! She stood at the patio door, tail wagging furiously, barking her head off, longing to go out and make their acquaintance. There should not be strangers in her garden, she knew, and yet she would have loved to get to know them. Gilbert’s a very quiet dog and stood behind her, less sure, and learning from her that sometimes it’s good to bark.

The men, of course, took absolutely no notice.

It was all done and dusted in a couple of hours. There followed several hours of refilling, so it was a late night for us as we waited . . . and waited.

It took three years of intermittent thinking and discussing before we decided to go ahead and install an endless pool. The idea was planted because Barry’s knees were in such a parlous state that he was told to stop his life-long cross-country running, and advised to take water-based exercise. That is not an easy thing to do in a public pool, even one attached to a spa. ‘Ladies Who Lunch’ and their ilk object to their watery environment being used by people trying to exercise, or even those attempting to swim.

Construction was commenced in 2009, the same year I started this blog. Anyone interested in the Endless Saga of the Endless Pool should type ‘endless pool’ in the ‘search this blog’ bar.

Eve, Elliot and Louis, now 24, 26 and 22

 It has been a delight to see the grandchildren enjoying the pool. Callum, now twenty-seven, often asks if he can use it when he visits.

Frankie, now 12

I am looking forward to getting out there again for some gentle swimming and shall be nagging Barry to get out there and get on with it. He’s easier to live with when he’s well exercised, (like a thoroughbred horse! Maybe not!) and he’s had a year of not doing very much – not his fault, of course.

I need him to keep fit, as I’ve no idea what to do with the pool, other than swim in it. I’m sure there are people I could call on . . .

ABC Wednesday P is for . . .

 . . . Pansies almost all the year round.

 . . . Petunias with their velvety petals. The palest colours have the strongest scent. To encourage continuous flowering in these summer annuals the dead heads should be removed. The sap is very sticky.

 . . . Pelargoniums come in a variety of reds from scarlet and crimson to peach and pink and white. They are grown as annuals in our temperate climate and are easily propagated from cuttings. Some people dislike the scent of geraniums – I think the strong pungent smell is wonderful. Pelargoniums are still flowering in our garden despite a light frost a week ago.

. . . Perennial geranium – otherwise known as cranesbills. There are one or two still hanging on.

 . . . Pinks (Dianthus) perennial sweet-scented flowers. There are very few flowers now.

 . . . the Pond in our garden supports much wild life including Pond skaters

 . . . the Endless Pool is a source of pleasure for all the family.

Pruning – our garden requires quite a lot of pruning. It’s our fault for planting so many shrubs. This year the arches were very overgrown and the flowers not as prolific. Those we had were about ten feet off the ground so we set to  pruning them.  Barry thought I was going to give them a trim but I had warned him I was going to cut them right back. I did this a few years ago and was rewarded with fresh growth and many flowers the following summer. The birds are a little despondent, having lost their shelter temporarily.

Hydrangea Petiolaris was hidden under Clematis 'Pille'.

Some of the prunings can be seen in a heap.

Click here to Peek at more Ps

Wondering

Something has been troubling me recently – apart from my back, that is, which has really been giving me gyp since I foolishly dragged Barry onto the dance floor on New Year’s Eve. I am now walking more normally and less like a constipated crab (do crabs suffer from constipation?) I have actually been out for a walk twice this month (second time today, in the sunshine) though it’s more of a wallow, as though I’ve just come ashore after a goodly time aboard ship, six months without shore leave, say. Having Barry to hang on to helps if we’re walking a pavement anywhere (who said ‘street walker’?) but he uses Pacerpoles(they look rather like ski sticks) when he’s walking the dogs so I’ve resorted to them in the forest too.

There are honest people in the world, you know. He lost his first set of Pacerpoles – probably put them on the roof of the car while he marshalled the dogs into it after a trek. He bought a replacement pair – better than the originals, in fact, because they’re made from carbon fibre and are therefore lighter - and was talking about them to someone he met in the forest. He mentioned his lost poles and she said she’d found them and a couple of days later her husband brought them round to the house. Wasn’t that nice?

Anyway, having decided that I really must walk straight again rather than the dot and carry method that has become my recent habit, I started to use a walking stick for occasions other than walking the dogs. I have also blessed the day we decided to build an Endless Pool because I have been able to use it to do some valuable exercise and get myself moving more or less conventionally again.

So, apart from my back, the thing that has been troubling me recently is the use of photographs, or rather the word ‘photographs’. Can I really call digital images photographs? Because they’re not – photographs, that is, at least not in the snapshot sense, at least not to me.

Wikipedia says:

The word "photograph" was coined in 1839 by Sir John Herschel* and is based on the Greek φῶς (phos) "light" andγραφή (graphê) "representation by means of lines" or "drawing", together meaning "drawing with light"

*Herschel was the only good thing to come out of Slough, in Berkshire. Sir John Betjeman wrote a poem which began,

 ‘Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough!

It isn’t fit for humans now.’

If only I’d looked at Wikipedia in the first place I could have saved myself hours of pondering for it seems that digital images can be referred to as photographs. Of course, they are stored in a different way but can still be printed - on photographic paper for a really fine finish but otherwise on any printer paper.

What shall I worry about next? Supper, I suppose, though Barry is wrestling with a computer at the moment, so we shall not eat early. Two points there – you can’t really wrestle with a computer. For a start it’s impossible to get an arm lock on a machine and computers break if slammed to the floor. Secondly, have you ever eaten early? What does it taste like? 

The Endless Saga of the Endless Pool – July 2009

On Monday P and J and P's father returned to finalise the tweaking and fine-tuning of the heat pump and then everything was switched on. We had not appreciated the power of the motor that drives the water current. Although we have some strong swimmers in our family I think it will be a little while before we use the current at its most powerful.

We were experiencing hot, sultry weather; even so the idea of plunging into cold water was unattractive so we waited until Tuesday when the heat pump had raised the temperature to a tolerable 82º Fahrenheit. Barry was the first to try out the pool and he thoroughly endorsed it, despite the fact that I had the remote control and was gradually increasing the power of the current to see if he would notice. Eventually he completed his session, including some water running, and then it was my turn.

In my usual fashion it took me about ten minutes to fully immerse myself. The first thing I found is that there is a technique to swimming against the current; it was something I had not acquired and so I kept being swept to the side. This has never been a problem before since the sea doesn't have sides! The next discovery was that my strong breast stroke kick resulted in my feet battering against the benches, probably because I wasn't swimming straight. Momentarily it seemed that all the care I had taken over the years to correct my screw kick had been wasted. If I screw kicked now at least one foot wouldn't hit the hard surface! Aqua shoes have proved to be the solution and they also make aquarobics easier to undertake.

It hardly seems possible that this project has now been realised. It's taken longer than human gestation!

Winston’s June blog

Winston here . . . p'rrrrr, p'rrrrr . . .

It's nearly two months since I last blogged but there's been a lot going on. A cat can hardly turn round without tripping over another human in the house, don'tcha know.

First of all Mr Human's mother came to stay so there was quite a lot of being shut away while she ate. She's not used to having cats and dogs around so hasn't developed the swatting technique to keep me and Monty away – not that we ever get actually swatted. Anyway we don't beg shamelessly like the dogs and really we only climb on laps to get a closer look and a sniff. What's wrong with that?

Then Paul and John came to do a bit more to the Endless Pool. Me and Monty keep hearing the humans talking about that but we don't know what it is. I think it must be like the pond but indoors. They went home and Gillian came with the children to look after the dogs – honestly, dogs are more trouble than cats! - while Mr and Mrs went to look at a school for Gareth's boys. We haven't seen Nina and the children since we were kittens but they're all coming back in August. Mr and Mrs are pleased about that.

That's how it's been – comings and goings. Well, Paul and John were back last week and again yesterday and Mr and Mrs H were very pleased by the end of the day.

Today they both disappeared into what they call the Pool Room and came back a while later with wet hair and smelling strange. I don't think they'd been playing billiards. Going for another snooze now – it's very hot and sticky at the moment so it's best to do as little as possible and save our energy. Monty and me are good at that.

TTFN

Shadow Shot Sunday

Workbench casts a shadow on the pool room floor.
Click on the 'Shadow Shot Sunday' logo to see more shadows.
Thank you to Hey Harriet for this meme.

The Endless Saga of the Endless Pool – June 2009

P and J came to our house last Wednesday on P's birthday to continue working on the pool. We had selected floor tiles of a fairly neutral colour but with gradations and variations of shades – rather smart, we thought. Indeed, they do look very attractive.

Next came the task of laying the armoured cable. This was not a simple job; much drilling had to be undertaken but finally it was in place. Some electrical circuitry had to be accomplished.

They went home last Friday and returned again yesterday. The pool is now almost full and soon – maybe as soon as this coming Friday – the pumps will be started. I don't think any of us realised what a marathon task this was going to be. My part in the procedure has been to supply beds, food and beverages. Barry has been the 'gofer' and the provider of funds but at last – whisper it – it is nearly finished!

Then we have to tidy up the outside – provide a proper step rather than the plank of wood we presently have, resting at an angle on a pile of beaten earth, apply another coat of paint to the pool room exterior and doubtless Barry too, build a wood shelter and move the piles of logs from the terrace in front of the gymnasium. Oh yes, there's work there for another twelve-month! (I do hope not!!)

The Endless Saga of the Endless Pool – a bit of a hiccup

The heat pump was made in the Republic of China where labour is cheap and plentiful. The water connector is in metric units but everything else for the Endless Pool is in Imperial units and the two won't fit. Oops!

Problems are made for solving – and this one has been. The correct pipe is even now in the Postal System, destined to reach us tomorrow. How the mismatch occurred is a mystery never to be unravelled.

The Endless Saga of the Endless Pool – pumps, various

Pinnacle swimming pool pump and Universal electric spa heater are shown combined on a base plate in the photograph below. It will take the strength of ten to move this to the Pool Room - or the skill and intelligence of three!The hydraulic fluid pump provides hydraulic power to the water flow motor.

The Endless Saga of the Endless Pool – lights, cement, action!

Cement contributes to five per cent of current global warming because of the heat needed to produce it. Now investigations are under way to find a means of manufacturing cement more efficiently. More importantly, investigators are looking at new products for use in construction that will absorb CO2. Until that time, cement will continue to be used and that is what P put down to screed the floor of the Endless Pool.

It was necessary to do this to smooth over the rough concrete surfaces before the pool liner could be ordered and fitted. Having finished the screeding, P turned his attention to installing lights and a dehumidifier. He also put the coping in place around the top edge of the pool and fitted the retractable cover on its roller. Every new achievement brought the pool closer to completion. We started imagining ourselves swimming.
Barry and P measured carefully several times to be absolutely sure of the size of the pool liner required. The dimensions were phoned through to the States, payment made and we settled in for a wait of possibly six weeks. A fortnight later the liner was delivered and Barry had several anxious moments checking that it was the correct size. It was! It is!

The Endless Saga of the Endless Pool – painting the Pool Room

The Pool Room is built of untreated wood and so the paint had to be chosen accordingly. It was an interesting voyage of discovery seeking a paint that would be subject to humidity and condensation and that could be used indoors. Barry had a few amusing conversations when he and the people he was phoning were at cross purposes over the meaning of a Pool Room. While they were envisaging green baize and cue balls he was talking about dampness!

Most paints recommended for wood protection can only be used outside since they contain chemicals harmful to people. Alarmingly, Barry learnt that many recommendations for indoor paint from suppliers of wooden buildings were considered dangerous to health by paint suppliers when used in situations where humidity would be a factor.

There was a substantial area to be covered, including a large expanse of ceiling, needing six to seven coats so it was also important that it could be applied by roller as well as brush. Eventually, on advice, particularly regarding health, he opted for Mylands Danish Oil which would provide adequate wood preservation and be safe for humans in a humid internal environment.

There followed days of fume-induced head-aching painting but finally the interior was finished. Now it was time to tackle the outside.

Barry decided to use Cuprinol Total Garden Wood Treatment because it was sprayable, making the work much easier for large areas, in particular those not easily reached. The coverage was impressively swift, especially of Barry. He looked like a leprechaun, his clothes a shade of green not often seen. The back of his neck had been sprayed to match and his face resembled a differently coloured reverse panda.

It has been breezy since the first treatment so he has been unable to apply a further coat.

The Endless Saga of the Endless Pool – building the Pool Room

The flat packs contained a huge construction kit for big boys. IKEA has nothing on this scale! On yet another cold day, with snow still on the ground, three young men arrived to put it together.

By the end of the day, the packs had been transformed from planks of wood into a large room, so blazingly bright in the dark winter garden that it positively shouted, 'Look at me!'

The next task would be the painting of it.

The Endless Saga of the Endless Pool – the Pool Room

The Pool Room – flat-packed and delivered in a large curtain side truck by one man and a small fork lift – arrived at the beginning of February.

The Endless Saga of the Endless Pool – construction begins

P and J appeared at the house shortly after the Endless Pool was delivered having driven up from Dorset the same morning. A quick cup of tea and they set to. They worked on after dark with floodlights and finally the tank was completed. It was like playing with giant Meccano - for the onlooker at least!

The Endless Saga of the Endless Pool – delivery

A pallet holding the galvanised steel for the pool body was left on the drive.

The large wooden container with the rest of the components was stored in the garage.

The Endless Saga of the Endless Pool – parallelogram and Quercus

The building that was to become the Pool Room had been ordered before the foundation was laid and the shuttering for the concrete had been measured and placed accordingly. Barry had planned meticulously as is his wont.

Once the base had dried out it was time to check the measurements again to make sure it was all as planned. To Barry's consternation it was not the rectangle he had designed and confidently expected but a parallelogram. It looked rectangular but had no right angles. Much muttering ensued as he repeatedly measured and calculated, exercising his brain and my worry glands. Not for the first time I wondered whether we had been wise to undertake this project. Finally he declared himself satisfied that all would be well, there was no problem and everything would fit and I began to breathe normally again.

Then he turned his attention to the two oaks, one behind the base and one to the right. We had discussed them many times. Their canopies obscured much of the sky and the ground beneath them was shaded and didn't support much plant life. However, like all oaks, they sustained a plethora of life in their branches and provided walkways for generations of squirrels. We didn't want to lose them but felt they needed trimming of their weaker limbs. A tree surgeon was consulted and his advice was sobering. Thinning or cutting out the crowns would result in a fresh spurt of growth; eventually the roots, easily matching the area of the panoply, would force up the thick concrete base and ultimately the Endless Pool.

Reluctantly we decided that they must be cut down and the date was set for Twelfth Night. The Christmas decorations and the oaks would all come down on the same day.

On the appointed very cold day four young men appeared and within a short time the crowns were removed and shredded. We had requested that the trunks be left for us to store and season for our log burners and the men obligingly sliced them into more manageable chunks. Our next-door neighbour and our neighbour at the back both decided to take advantage of workmen on the spot and each had one tree cut down. This pleased Barry as it released more star-watching sky.

The pool foundation was now hidden beneath a mound of logs which we shifted over the next few days. We used a log-splitter – a sort of hydraulic ram – to split the larger, tougher logs. I was enjoying using it and felt I was making a valuable contribution to the whole exercise but my involvement came to an abrupt halt when one particularly resilient log flew apart, several parts of it hitting several parts of me. I retired injured, blood streaming from a cut below my eyebrow and Barry went straight out and bought me a bright yellow Bob the Builder hard hat and some sturdier, more comfortable goggles.

'It'll be great when it's finished,' we enthused, each privately wondering if that day would ever come. Now, six months into the project we are within hailing distance of the completion.

NB: click on photos for a larger image

The Endless Saga of the Endless Pool – the concrete base

We thought clearing the shed would be a cinch after the garage but, being very much smaller, it was far more densely packed. Nonetheless, we emptied it fairly rapidly. I use the pronoun 'we' advisedly since my part in the operation was mainly that of support and the provision of much tea. What wasn't discarded was stored in the now tidy garage or put under tarpaulin next to the conservatory.

At this point the garden looked a little untidier than usual but still quite respectable. Then P and J arrived to dismantle the shed, repair the fence and lay the concrete base for the log cabin. There's a lot of clay in the local soil so drainage is not wonderful and the water table was very high after frequent and persistent heavy downpours. The ground was extremely boggy. By the time ten cubic metres of concrete had been barrowed across there was nothing left of the grass, and the ground more than ever resembled a quagmire even though we had laid down makeshift duckboards. P and J shovelled and levelled as each wheelbarrow was emptied and finally, after four hours of backbreaking work, the two-level base was complete.

Now it had to dry out.

The Endless Saga of the Endless Pool - measuring

Before the final decision was made there were many phone calls to retailers of 'container' pools and lengthy discussions on the relative merits and demerits of different products but ultimately Endless Pools, Inc simply had the best product for our requirements. The Americans with whom we consulted were (and still are) charming, extremely helpful and ready to advise on any problems. The deposit was paid in September 2008 and the serious planning started.

We had already considered different locations; the garage (too dark and unwelcoming and where would my car go?); the conservatory (where would the cats go – it's their favourite room?); on the patio which would have to be extended (where would the pond go??); on the terrace outside the Pavilion (mockingly renamed the 'sheddio') which houses all the exercise machines; in the 'sheddio' (we could rearrange the equipment); in the garden shed (we could put the garden tools 'somewhere else;') We decided that it had to be indoors. It became clear that there was only one place the pool could go – at the end of the garden where the shed was. The shed was not an attractive building to accommodate a swimming pool; it was a safe haven for spiders, ants and other beasties and the space underneath was a shelter for itinerant rats. It would have to be demolished to be replaced by a 'POOL ROOM' which meant that the contents of the shed would have to be relocated to the garage (!)

Then we started endless measuring for the Endless Pool. There would be a concrete base on which a log cabin would be constructed. We calculated width, breadth, depth, height and tried to visualise the finished product. To comply with local planning regulations the structure must not exceed a designated height and must be within a determined distance from our boundaries. We measured again and again to be sure we could maximise the area which had been allocated to the pool. The pool itself would be eight and a half by fifteen and a half feet with a maximum depth of fifty-two inches. Finally satisfied that we had observed the rules it was time to empty the shed. Prior to that, however, the accumulated rubbish of years must be removed from the garage to make room for the contents of the now despised shed. It took us two days to clear the garage, making generations of mice and spiders homeless. We threw out pots full of solidified paint, broken lamp bases, miles of wire that had been hoarded 'just in case', plug adapters that used to work, bubble wrap that was home and final resting place to the remnants of a plague of moths which, curiously, seemed to have arrived in a consignment of logs.

Finally we were ready for the shed!

The Endless Saga of the Endless Pool - the idea takes root

It was a little over three years ago that the topic of an endless pool was first raised. It seemed a novel idea and we were mildly interested but had no burning desire to invest in one.

Then, in October of 2007, my husband, a life-long cross-country runner, was advised to stop running immediately if he didn't want to undergo reconstructive knee surgery on both legs. Seeking an alternative to running that would give him the same intensity of exercise, he went to a private spa where he was able to run in water. This was a short-lived solution as the hydrotherapy pool was intensively used by many different groups and was not often available at the times that Barry was able to go.

We had joined our local independent school's sports club in order to use their swimming pool but it wasn't really very convenient – there seemed to be additional charges for different times and we couldn't commit to swimming at the same time every day, or even every week. We felt it was an expensive way to keep fit and didn't provide the opportunity for the sort of exercise Barry needed to do.

The idea of a pool in our modest back garden seemed ludicrous, to me at least, but as we made further investigations it began to seem possible. The excellent Endless Pools site, with its seductive photographs and videos of happy swimmers in beautiful surroundings, and their free dvd, quickly turned the possibility into a probability and we began to plan.

At that time, we were thinking of moving and were reluctant to build something we might have to deconstruct a relatively short time later. However, the global banking crisis, with all its ramifications, caused us to reconsider. We didn't want to put our lives and plans on hold so we decided to go ahead.

(For any folk who may never have heard of an endless pool it is, in effect, a water treadmill. A power unit generates the current against which you swim – no tumble turns required – and the strength and speed of the current is adjustable. Michael Phelps uses one in his training . . . )