Enter,

We still don't have a name for the cottage, but I thought it might be nice to put a symbol of some sort above the door. Because Margaret planted two fig trees out front as part of the passive solar design, I went with a fig leaf (although most people see it as other things, like "a baby," or "a nature shape.")

Often in strawbale homes, a builder will pick a place to put a "truth window," a piece of glass right up against the strawbale wall. This allows the homeowner to prove that their house is built out of straw, in the case of disbelievers. The fig leaf acts as a cob truth window (sans glass), the only place on the entire cottage where the original cob is showing through.



With the door, which will be painted (Margaret's vote is deep blue):



I decided to do a bit more lime, for an especially grand entrance, like walking into a flower. This is right after I scratched and hydrated the areas to be plastered, to provide a good surface for adhesion:

You can see how the scratch marks will give the lime plaster some "tooth" to grab onto:




Sunset is when the clay really gets to show off its color: