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Monday, June 16, 2014

Creating an Outdoor Room.

This is the first year that I have shifted some of my (limited) focus to creating beauty for beauty's sake.  I have been striving to make everything count for something - all things planted must produce an edible product, for example.  This year I realized that my soul needs nourishment as well as my body.  It may even need it more.

Last year I sat on my deck once.  One single time.  I was either too busy, it was too hot, it was raining, I was hiding from the goats.  This year I have been enjoying it immensely because I have remedied three of those problems - goats gone, canopy in place.  And I have surrounded it with flowers.  And tomatoes - old habits die hard.

Pansies, dahlias, hanging verbena,
tomatoes, lemongrass, rosemary

Mosquito geranium and two plants to
be put in the ground.  Giant, scary hops vine
lurks in the background...

Mustard greens are new to the garden
this year - with the first kale!

******
All these "Great Aunt" memories conjured up one of my own.  My Great Aunt Edie, she of knitting fame, lived next door to us for a period in my teenage years.  My paternal grandmother had moved in with us and that strained our limited bedroom space.  So my sister and I moved next door and lived with my aunt.  She was a stickler for neatness - those German genes - and my sister and I had to dust and vacuum our bedrooms on a regular basis.  After one such cleaning frenzy, I was walking downstairs with the vacuum cleaner, when I got my foot tangled in the cord and went ass over teacups down the stairs, landing in a heap at the foot of the stairs - vacuum cleaner held upright.  My aunt and her group of knitting ladies were in the living room.  As I gazed up, I beheld five faces - mouths open, needles frozen in mid-stitch.  I untangled myself, rewrapped the cord, said hello (we minded our manners back then), and trotted to the closet and put the vacuum away.  I don't think they started breathing again until I walked out the door.  I wouldn't care to repeat that trick today.  I may save the vacuum cleaner, but I doubt if I would be trotting anywhere.

5 comments:

Mama Pea said...

A very, very inviting deck! Do you take reservations?

Isn't it the weirdest thing that when we fall, we always try to "save" whatever it is that is in our hands/arms? Often at the expense of injury to ourselves (!) rather than the vacuum cleaner, basket of eggs, plate of cookies, whatever??! I can just envision the knitting group the way you described them so clearly.

Buttons Thoughts said...

Oh you saved the vacuum good job. Oh your deck garden is beautiful.It would be so nice to sit and relax there. Hug B

Sue said...

It's beautiful. And it occurs to me we have "neglected" to actually SIT on the deck. It becomes a dumpiing ground for things that have to be planted, etc. You really made yourself a nice spot. Glad to see you are using it!

Unknown said...

Nice job! I realized a few years back I had a lot of flowers in the front yard, but our living room and dining room faces the back. I had some planted along the back of the house, where we couldn't see them. I finally had a duh moment! I finally planted more flowers in the back where we could actually see them! It looks so much better. Veggies are great but I need flowers to, all perennials....

Pioneer Woman at Heart said...

Love the deck. What a funny story to tell.