Roll, Don't Gather...

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One of the things I most love about our place is the once car-park-worthy tarmac of the patio having been colonized by nature. When we moved here, there was just this weird, anomalous strand of the black stuff out front of the conservatory/wintergarten thing, which wasn't even level for God's sake. Just several tons of road covering dumped on top of the rubble of demolished out-buildings and slate waste. We chipped away at parts of it and created a couple of rockery islands, even a few years ago constructing a level pergola/eating area - long since gone - but the bulk of the reclamation work has and is being done by nature. What is particularly pleasing is the colonization of the place by mosses. A plant revered by the Japanese and myself in equal measure, it speaks of time and spirituality, outside the influence of our species, the essence of Zen itself.

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