stones and pebbles

Halloween has come and gone. People in France are aware of Halloween to varying degrees, but I must say most the folks in our village are very good sports, especially considering the use of firecrackers by the older kids and the adaptation of "Trick or Treat" as "Des bonbons ou la mort" ("Candy or Death!"). One unprepared household invited our whole throng of fifteen wild (and scary) kids and three out-of-breath parents inside for the only treat they could rummage out of the cupboards - glasses of coke and OJ. In the madness, I failed to get photos of the kids in costume. L made a very cute bat and C a short-lived ghost (her sheet proved too hard to run with and was soon wadded up in my pocket). Here is G's fab jack-o-lantern.

Below, there I am emptying buckets of pouzzolane (volcanic pumice stone) into the basins, covering the layer of river stones underneath. For those following the technical aspects of this project, the big top basin works as a vertical filter with the biggest stones on the bottom and smaller ones on top. The second and third basins are horizontal fliters, with the river stones at the fluid arrival and departure points, and smaller stones in between. There have been many fiascos with these stones, and it felt great to, at long last, get them to their final destination. Yeehah!