G'day Maria, A 'classic' thing to do on an equinox, is to mark, (pegs in earth -- chalk, sticky tape, etc., on the patio paving, -- or as your imagination suggests) the location of some well defined fixed object's shadow on any horizontal surface every-so-often for a goodly span of the day's sunlit hours. The shadow will move in a straight line directly west to east. Connect the dots, and presto!, you have determined a useful direction reference.
Although it might seem a bit like watching the grass grow, a dialist can find peculiar, but real, pleasure while doing this, just to see the the straight W to E line reveal itself again, as it always has. Later you can draw the local meridian at a right angle, anywhere along this established line, which is a most essential thing to know for any dialing project. (The good old Pythagorean ratio of 3:4:5 for the sides of a measured right-triangle is a good way to lay off the right angle.) Welcome to dialing, Bill Maddux Princeton, New Jersey 40.37° N, 74.64° W
