patio time

One thing I love about this time of year is spending time on the patio. It's a peaceful spot to have morning coffee or tea, a relaxing spot in the late afternoon with a magazine or book, and of course, we have dinner out here often, too. Though these past few days have been too hot to do much hanging out here past morning.

This path on this side of the house is lined with perennials and is fun to dress up with potted annuals for color. I wanted to paint the ladder this year, but Brian likes it as is, so I left it alone.

It's hard to see some of the details from the overall photo above, so here's some close-ups. This is on the right side of the path as you're walking towards the patio, though I took this photo coming back down the path.

I love this red bench I got at a vintage shop for $5 a few months ago. It's not sturdy enough to sit on, but it looks nice in the gardens.

Looking back at the bench area from the patio.

With living in an area where we're surrounded by neighbors, I love that we have this space carved out for privacy. The only thing I detest - and that I've mentioned on this blog probably every summer - is the neighbor's mulberry tree. It's already started dropping green berries on the patio. That means within the next week, ripened berries are going to start dropping by the thousands. They not only fall all over the patio, but the furniture, in my plant pots, into the hostas, and all along the path leading up to the patio. They are mushy and rot quickly, attracting flies. They also stain everything, so I have to move my patio furniture up against the house. And they ruin my hostas. 

Friday edit: Some of you had commented or emailed me to let me know we can trim the neighbor's trees that hang onto our property. We are aware of this and have done so several times in the past years. But it's complicated with both the neighbor and the mulberry tree itself. I will give details in my next post. 

I have this bicycle at the end of the patio, behind the settee. This is my first "real" bicycle from childhood. I got it for my 8th birthday in 1970. An original made-in-Chicago Schwinn. I love using it now as garden decor. When these tiger lilies bloom, it looks so pretty around the bike.

There's the bike in the background. 🌞

The warm evenings are magical...

Do you have an outdoor space to enjoy some quiet time?

on this last day of summer

The end of summer always makes me a little sad. I love the long sun-filled days and the warm temps. (Admittedly, not when it's in the 90's or when the humidity leaves you unable to breathe.) I love the lushness of the trees and abundance of colorful flowers. I love being able to run outside by just slipping on a pair of shoes (or sometimes not). I love being barefoot most of the time. I love the smell of freshly mown grass and the wafting scent in the air of neighbors grilling dinner. I love hanging out on the patio in the evenings, sipping a glass of wine. Can you tell summer is my favorite season?

I've already been dumping pots of withered annuals and washing out the pots and storing them back in the garage until next spring. The only annuals still thriving are the ones on my front porch.

The summer perennials are drying up, too...

Here, the purple coneflower is done showing off and the sedum is taking over.

The morning light coming in through the front door is now muted and casts beautiful shadows. (Oh, and I guess that's a sneak peek at my new Wayfair painting. A post will be coming next week about that.)

 

No surprise, but I haven't dug out my box of fall decor yet. I have put up a few pieces of fall artwork and today when I was at Trader Joe's, I picked up some small white pumpkins, but that's all I've done as far as fall decorating. I'm in no hurry.

It was 90 degrees here yesterday and this afternoon, it was only in the 60's! Tonight, it's actually going down to 44 degrees. I said to Brian that we could be going from air-conditioning to turning on the furnace in 24 hours. He said, "Welcome to Chicago."

In all seriousness, I am not turning on the furnace. I will put on a hoodie and a pair of socks tomorrow morning if I have to. 

So long, beautiful summer. Until next year....

xoxo

bassackwards

 My hubby, Brian is in a profession that is open 24/7. When our boys were little, he worked rotating shifts and it was very hard on all of us. Thirteen years ago, his employer established permanent shifts and since Brian's one of the senior employees, he got day shift. Not Monday - Friday, mind you, but at least it wasn't the evening shift or even worse, the midnight shift. Well, now there's a new boss and the decision was made to go back to rotating shifts. Long story as to why - which I'll spare you. Needless to say, Brian and I aren't happy about this, but there's nothing we can do except to deal with it as best as we can. January 1st of this year through the end of April (plus the first couple of days in May due to some shift changes), Brian was on day shift. Here he is grilling outside in the rain Sunday evening ~ his last evening at home. A little rain doesn't stop a man and his grill!

So now Brian's on the evening shift ~ 2:30 - 10:30 p.m - until the end of August. (And then he's on midnights the rest of the year - double ugh.) It's so weird having him here in the mornings with me. It throws off my daily routine. Since we like to spend time together like we're used to doing in the evenings, we now do it in the mornings. I made a big breakfast for us this morning - veggie frittata, bacon (Trader Joes has a very good nitrate-free applewood smoked kind), Morning Glory muffins - and then we ran some errands. After he was off to work, that's when I started my housework and laundry - which I am used to doing first thing in the morning. I'm also doing my exercise (yoga or walking) in the afternoons now, too. And even harder thing for me to get used to is being alone all evening. I'm not a TV watcher and I don't like to just lie around and read unless it's late at night, right before bed. I'm more of a "doer". I have a couple of single girlfriends who said I could gladly hang out with them in the evenings. And, of course, when the weather is nice I can be outside working in the yard. I have plenty of projects to work on, so there is plenty to do...it's just bassackwards.

 I stopped at the garden center yesterday after my yoga class and bought a flat of annuals and some lettuces and spinach. Would love to be outside this evening planting all these things, but it's been cold and rainy all day. Can you believe it's only been 48 degrees today? Yesterday, it was 80. So it goes in this part of the world at this time of year. 

Linking up with Tweak it Tuesday.