I love everything about backyards: hammocks, kids, dogs, cats, neighbors, grills, grass underfoot, moon and stars at dusk, charcoal, flowers, bubbles, water, rock collections, sand, picnics, lemonade, hide and seek, flip-flops, tanning, straw hats, and reading on Sundays. These are wholesome, simple pleasures and I live a pretty simple life.
But somehow in our different moves or in an effort to be wise on one income so that I can stay at home, we’ve neglected a long desired dream of mine: A moss-covered patio with hammocks and an arbor shading it overhead. This was okay with me for a long time. I don’t have to have everything. And a lot of things just don’t matter that much to us. But, it’s time. So now, 8 years and three moves later, it is starting to take shape. My plan was to go with inexpensive and re-purposed.
I have collected a lot of flat, broken concrete pieces from new building sites around town to form our path and patio. Set a bit apart, like flagstones, for moss to grow between. The arbor will be made of cypress logs from a nearby sawmill as support posts and painted pine for the arbor itself. The bougainvilla have been waiting patiently with me all these 8 years for a permanent home in the ground and something to meander up. When we get back from my next yoga certification trip, we’ll get busy.
I think it all started with the Fisher Price record player. You know, the one that played: “Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone?” Later, I had one like this….
I cast on for the Kollabora Sockalong and started working in magic loop. Then I remembered Elena’s post about her sock recipe and how she worked this pattern toe up….
Who knew a mother-in-law’s tongue could bloom? I’ve had these forever- as long as my youngest child. They were inherited from a lovely friend who passed away and have unobtrusively…