35) Furnishings, Sun Crosses & Triskelions
Things have been moving slowly over the winter, but we're almost done. Just waiting on the electricians (any day now) and Darren McCullough, our trusted stonemason, who is even now assembling the stone for the various walls, entryways, patio and fire pit. Dry-laid stonework takes time, but it will be a wonderful finishing to the SunCottage's exterior.
We brought in the long-awaited walnut table from Pompanoosuc Mills just after Christmas:
We found some great curved benches perfect for setting down beverages while floating in the hot tub:
A shot of the plant counter that divides the top floor. Gotta fill it with shade-tolerant flora-
Did you know there are ten thousand works of fine art in the SunCottage? Yep, it's called the Meural and here's one of the paintings we chose. You have to see it to believe it.
Winter was a perfect time for completing the bottle wall. Here's a close-up of the plastering and cleaning that the task involved:
Nearly done:
Painting in progress:
Finis!
As previously discussed, the bottlewall acts as a Trombe Wall, absorbing solar energy into it's massive bulk during sunny days, and releasing it at night. To increase the heat gain we set up several mirror panels to reflect sunlight directly onto the back of the wall. Painted black, to absorb maximum energy, it heats up considerably on bright sunny days. Warmed air rises and passes through open bottles at the top, flowing into the room, cold air flows in through three passageways on the floor. It's a passive room solar room heater! We found that on optimum days it raises the temperature of the room by 4 to 8 degrees.
We emplaced the two stone panels below in the stairwell to the exercise room. Inspired by our recent trip to Ireland, they're meant to channel prehistoric sun lovers. The right hand one is the Sun Cross, representing the wheel of the sun god's chariot as it crosses the sky.
On the left is a triskelion or triskele. We've adopted it as the symbol of the SunCottage.
Light passes through the carvings and illuminates the back wall of the downstairs utility room:
But something magical happens within the seven days on either side of December 21st. Lit images of the Triskelion and the Sun Cross strike the back wall and the effect is astounding, if not primeval. Once seen you'll never forget it! Here's a fuzzy photo of the triskelion on December 21st, 2018:
Our infatuation with these triple spirals arose from a visit to the Neolithic site of Newgrange in County Meath overlooking the River Boyne:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newgrange
By luck we were there on the summer solstice, June 21st. Though the real time to be there is on the winter solstice, six months earlier or later. For 17 minutes a year sunlight passes through the entrance and illuminates the center of the colossal tomb:
Here's a picture of the event.
It turns out that you can see it, if you're lucky, each year 60 names are drawn by lottery for the chance to view this 5000 year old human experience.
So what's all this have to do with triskelions? Well just outside the tomb is a 4 foot tall, ten foot wide, rock covered with incised designs, the most famous of which is this:
We couldn't bring the rock home, but we picked up this piece of work at the EPIC Irish Immigration Museum in Dublin. It hangs in living room of the SunCottage:
So back to the mundane. Today I took a picture of the current state-of-affairs pre-landscaping outside the cottage. Frankly it's a mess, within a few months we'll hopefully have an after-picture when all the wall stones are in place, there's a yard and a staircase.
And by then the green roof will be covered again in wildflowers... Stay tuned!
