The Circle: Progress

One more day of work and it will be finished, just before a possible snow storm this weekend.Here are several views I took in a pouring rain with my iPhone. You can see the water glistening on the stone and puddled on the ground surface. Wet, a governing principle of my garden. Garden, you ask? Yes, the tail end of the garden; it's ready to be cut and burned, but only after winter has thoroughly desiccated everything.This shows the part to be finished, about six feet still to be laid on the side up against the Japanese Fantail willows (Salix sachalinensis 'Sekka'). I'm thinking of knocking a small part down after it's built and planting over it to create an atmosphere of age--ferns, violets, other durable shade plants. That's a thought, not a decision.This area, flattened by ice about two months back, is where I want to do some new planting. The space is by no means empty but I do want to have a screen of ornamental foliage softening the view from across the garden.This leaning Inula is one example of the kind of ornamental screening I'm considering. The open graveled area is where the much smaller entry circle will be built, probably at half the height of the larger circle, and with thinner walls. (Suggestions welcome.) Moving across the garden toward the house ...... and onto the gravel terrace overlooking the garden. I took these images from inside the house using my DSLR, a neutral density filter, and a long exposure time--an experiment--trying to learn new camera techniques.The shrub is a Lindera glauca v. angustifolia, which keeps its foliage through winter (and a lot of color too).More golds and moody greys and browns.Shot through a doorway from inside the house, a foreshortened view of one of the three large Sycamores (Platanus occidentalis) overhanging the edge of the garden ... a bit of Japanese wabi sabi feeling.