weekend project ~ that pesky pergola

The positively persistent pergola painting procrastination is no more. Bet you're glad about that...just so the bad alliteration ends if nothing else. Did you think I'd ever do it? I wasn't sure myself but...I finished painting that bloody pergola yesterday...and here it is...ta dah...well a bit of it anyway.

While I was up a ladder painting the last almost completely inaccessible parts of the pergola...that is unless you're a circus performer, in which case it would be extremely good practice for your high wire act...it occurred to me why it's taken me so long to finish this. It's because I am scared of ladders!

This, dear bloggy people was a revelation to me. I'm no scaredy cat...I've jumped out of a plane for crying out loud...into shark infested waters no less...yes, really...I may have been pushed, I may have been many years younger, I may have screamed for quite a lot of it, but still...I did that. I've abseiled down the side of quite a tall building as well...gee that was fun (actually it really was)...and I've been at the top of the tallest mast on this ship (the Royal Australian Navy's Young Endeavour) with a microphone and a cameraman, in my old Defence PR days...ok I confess...that WAS scary...

...but when it comes to an ordinary old household ladder...nope, don't like it...don't want to be there. Even when there is a very good view from the top...which I can't show you because the photo I took was crappy...and I'm not getting back up on that ladder for anyone! So here's a picture of a nice gardenia I grew all by myself instead...I'm sure you won't mind...they're pretty and they smell good...

And here's what the vampire slayer was doing while I was getting much too closely associated with the large rhododenron bush I had to navigate while reaching those aforementioned inaccessible spots...

...that's right...like a typical cat...abso-bloody-lutely nothing! But then...when it was all finished, she thought she might as well come out from under the table and check out the paint job I'd done...everyone's a critic aren't they?

And I have to throw this in because it makes me laugh every time I see it...a bit of good old Aussie improvisation...

One night when a few of us were having dinner in the courtyard and the mossies were coming to join us, we needed somewhere to put the mosquito coil...and this was the solution one of my smart alec clever friends came up with.  A hooped skirt for a beer bottle...I love it!

So there you have it...quite pleased I am, and now I'm looking forward to the wisteria growing over the pergola so I have lovely white flowers hanging down...and quite probably dropping into the food and chilled beverages, but hey...who cares about that when you're sitting under a particularly pretty painted pergola (sorry, last time!)

I'll leave you with one last picture of the vampire slayer, because you guys seem to like her...yes, she looks cute...don't believe it!

Happy week everyone...I've got a busy one.

all images by me except for No.2 which is from here and No.3 from here