There's only one more day of preschool before the year ends and the children and I are already in vacation mode, eating breakfast outdoors, and dinners, too...sliding and swinging and bouncing as much as we can fit into our days.
Brandon and I have been working on beautifying this corner space on our property since he and my dad tore the hot, rusty, corrugated tin roof off of 4 poles which stand in a rectangle.
A few years ago, I gave him three bamboo plants for our ten year anniversary. My dad bought me the wisteria in the corner. Miles' and Ivy's Nanna bought the petunias that Miles and his Dad later planted in the pots you see. An old table was hauled down from a cabin we owned in the mountains. I traded three massages for the turquoise cottage chairs that often show up in my photographs. A friend gave us two paint-chipped benches that they were tired of looking at. The allyssum has seeded itself again and again, bless its heart. The large frame that the wisteria is peeping through is living out it's second life.
On the Memorial Day holiday, while I was busy working away in my studio all day, Brandon and Miles were wheelbarrowing load after load of pea gravel under the structure, from a mountain which has been sitting next to our driveway for nearly three years. They first covered the tangle of grass and weeds with black gardeners plastic and then filled in the space.
It feels like a Zen garden and I feel relaxed just writing about it. I found a big tray that I used to let Miles sort beans and projects on when he was much younger, and we've been carting it out there each day covered in various drinks, peanut butter on sprouted grain toast, cup after cup of tea, brown rice with golden raisins and almonds, fresh strawberries.
Outdoor spaces and late Spring go together like lemon slices in my water...I hope you find a sanctuary to rest in, too.
