Working on the roof and the landscaping

I still haven't located my book on Exterior Finishes by Bea Broadwood, so I am doing the roof the best I can remember from reading it..  I showed you the clay on the roof in the last post.  We went to see our daughter the next day and brought our grandsons back to Sydney a day or so later.  So the roof was quite dry when we came back.  But it was also very cracked.  I've not used this brand of air-drying clay before (Boyle), I usually use Creative PaperClay and although that cracks it doesn't crack like this.

A lot of those cracks go right down to the wood, so they took quite a bit of filling with Polyfilla, an interior filler.

Once that was dry I could do the second step and here are some photos of that stage:

 As you can see, I started to landscape while the glue on this layer dried.

 I've finally decided on an autumn theme for the landscaping, but still have to get some tree frames - or make some - and do them with autumn foliage.

 The colours in these photos aren't wonderful, sorry about that but the flash kept working and changing the colours.

I really must get some sort of background too, to show up the house properly without the background clutter.

I left that layer to dry overnight and then gave it the first coat of paint.  Bea says in her book that it takes quite a while for the paint to dry because of the fibrous nature of that second layer. But it is 38deg C here today (100.4 degF) so that has helped despite the air-conditioning being on this afternoon.

 So that's the progress for now.  I need to find my flowersoft or else buy some more which is a pain, to add some colour to the shrubs.    And of course the roof needs at least one more coat of paint because there are some spots that have been missed.

I am really looking forward to seeing it finished now.  Isn't it amazing how every step makes such a difference?