Whew! I've done it

Yes, a long time since I posted, but I really wanted to have something to report.
And what I have managed to do it finish an assembly edit of all the material to date. So that means what we have shot for the first segment (we plan to shoot the missing bits at the end of October), one edit of the second segment, and two edits of the third and final segment in Norway.
The second segment includes the additional material I shot with Flora in Wanstead last week. I already said that when edited this part first and immediately felt that the final scene lacked development. There just wasn't the detail there to suggest the relationship between Claire and the landscape. Now there are a number of scenes still missing in both this segment and the first, that also add detail to this theme and I suspect that at the end I will have too much, but I would rather be in that position than not have enough material.
So I have cut this video into the film, or rather the DV dubs of the film, and when JC returns he can see what I have, and we can go from there.
It was also time for Roland to begin playing with the sound design, so he came by and took away an earlier version of this second segment with the idea of creating some play material for me. I really do not want the sound design to be slapped on to a finished edit. Instead I want the sound design to change the edit itself.
Once I finished the second segment I went onto the third segment. Now this is the part where I need to do the most worrying. What can I do if I am missing some key material? Not only is there the expense, but there is a real winter in Norway. The earliest you shoot again is in April.
I realise there is a contradiction in what I am trying to achieve. On the one hand the shots of the landscape have above Claire's story. The exist outside of her. But at the same time they are meant to create a unified whole to this segment, to be the final part of the arc of her story. How to do both at the same time?
So I am at this moment burning DVDs of the these editing sequences. I have invited David over to watch them on the big screen where I hope I will find some objectivity and some useful feedback. Is there a concept here? And if not, some other ideas? So news from Monday...