Pavilion Now Decked Out For The Fall Season

The pavilion is all decked out for fall now. I was going to post this yesterday. But a hornet's nest up in the eaves altered my plans a bit.

At the antique mall the other day, I found the carnival sign hanging between the two chairs. And these two rusted chickens, below, for $5 a piece.

Charlie Ross dearly loves to chase lizards. So I put this one up out of harms way.

Here's the other side of the pavilion conversation area.

I found this glass sign at another little antique mall. The red frame is just hanging there to give the illusion that the sign is bigger. My pavilion roof is quite high, so it looked a little small for the area before I did that, I thought.

No one can accuse me of not having enough color in my gardens and outdoor living spaces, that's for sure.

Here's how I give the illusion that the pavilion is a separate room from the other "outdoor rooms." I divide the space with things like shelves and such.

So since it's Labor Day and my husband is working, I think I'll sit out here on the pavilion and listen to the water feature and the pond waterfall. Maybe catch up on my reading.

A Nice Rain Amidst The Bright Sunshine

Today was a nice day to sit outside under the pavilion and think about flowers for fall. Mums and pansies immediately come to mind of course.

Butterflies are everywhere, flitting about the yard and then out above the fence into the alley.

Leaves are starting to turn colors and drift down. A sign that summer is almost over.
 

This morning I went to Lowes and purchased some matchstick blinds for the east and west sides of the pavilion. The intense heat here didn't seem to bother me until now. Must be the way the sun is setting in the sky this time of year.

Gives it a rather cozy feel, I think. And makes it so much nicer to sit out here and dream or read.

This afternoon I was sitting out here enjoying the breeze (and the overhead fan). When out of the bright sunshine came unexpected falling rain. 

 

It was so strange. And came so suddenly. But of course I enjoyed it. Sitting here in my chair with the dogs alongside me. Listening to it pelt the roof. Loving that fresh rain scent.

 

Then I came inside and had an afternoon cup of coffee. I always set my mug in this little blue dish. A lone plate picked up long ago at a tag sale. Placed where I can enjoy it everyday.

 

What A Month & A New Red Sideboard

What better on my little dining room table on this Memorial Day than gingham oilcloth? Which has been around, what, forever it seems? I think of it as classic Americana.

This May has certainly been a rather wild ride for me. I don’t know if I can take a more exciting month. So I hope for June to be a bit more ordinary so I can catch my breath.

I finally found the sideboard I’ve been searching for for over a year to put in my tiny 10 x 10 dining room that looks out over the gardens.

I found it Saturday at what I refer to as the antique mall out behind The Blue Store. If you don’t live around these parts, you’ve never heard of The Blue Store.

It’s actually a service station/restaurant/convenience store outside of town. We call it The Blue Store, because well, it’s blue. If it has another name, I’ve never heard it.

It’s one heavy piece of furniture. It was marked $195. I ended up getting it for $165. I have no idea as to its origins.

My dilemma has been that this small room has glass doors on two entire walls. One wall has the black hutch on it and also the doorway into my kitchen. The wall you see this on is a fairly open entry to the living room. I wanted something here to hide the monstrous electrical cords on the other side of it. Nothing I found up till now quite did the trick for me.

Herein lies the problem…

And this is where I need your help. Obviously, since it’s on an open wall, the back of it shows. And there’s a chair not far behind it that my husband must have glued to that spot.

What do you think I should do here? I’ve pondered covering it with toile fabric. Any ideas out there?

I brought it home and immediately got out the orange oil that brings a nice sheen to the wood.

Then this morning I learned that the outdoor pillows I’ve been salivating over at PB finally went on sale. And today is free shipping! I ordered two.

I would like these to go in my two club chairs out under the pavilion. I just love the blue. Looks like the sky. Twenty inches of luscious pillow to rest my weary back against whilst I sit and think about all that’s happened in so short a time. Wonderful things and not so wonderful things. But life, just the same.

Such is life.

Technorati Tags: Small dining room decorating,sideboards,Pottery Barn outdoor pillows

Guiding The Eye With Bold Colors

I have every conceivable color in my garden. But even when decorating outdoors, you learn to blend and draw the eye.

As in the case of my eight foot fence. At first the height seemed immense. But as the garden has grown, and I’ve added elements to the decorating scheme, it’s not as overwhelming in this small yard as it at first seemed.

It started with the rug, above, from Ballard Designs. Then I added the red lantern, below.

Which then led to the red chair garden in one corner of the yard.

Which in turn led to the red rooster. And of course the occasional red potted plant.

Red adds spice to any space. But you want to spread it around outside, so the color of nature is most visible. And when you live in a garden home, as I do, you don’t have as much space as many homeowners in which to spread things about.

Placed here and there, as though possibly it was an afterthought…

Which led me to take my red mirror outside today.

At first I placed it over closer to the red chair garden. But after looking at it from a ways back, I decided that was too concentrated. So I moved it to the other end of the fence.

Which I felt drew the eye over and upward.

So looking toward the back of the yard, my eye drifts from red pots to the red rug. To the red gazing ball in the decrepit wagon. To the red chair garden. And then upward to the red mirror.

Cherry red is not for the faint of heart. But to me enlivens my space. And adequately depicts the personality of the gardener.

Technorati Tags: Outdoor decorating,mirrors in the garden

An Almost Disaster & A Rusty Wagon

I have been mostly absent from the Land Of Blog today. This was the day the sprinkler company was scheduled to change heads on the sprinklers where the deck was built and gardens have been rearranged. Simple enough, right?

Wrong!

Rene from the irrigation company had the heads changed. And went to test out the system. My beautiful garden, which you see on the left, above, was quickly covered in water. It appeared to be sinking! Alarm bells went off in my head. “Uh-oh,” says Rene. “We have a problem.”

Seems that when they were pouring concrete for the stone garden borders, a shovel had inadvertently sliced an underground pipe. At first, as Rene starting digging out my flowers to find the source of the problem, I was aghast. My beloved flower garden, looking so fine these last few weeks, was being mutilated!

Rene worked as delicately as he could. Then he tested it again. “Uh-oh,” he said, as water continued to spray. Which meant the problem was beyond the concrete bed and out into or even beyond my little brick pocket bed. Or worse, underneath the waterfall!

Visions of mortar and stone being torn apart went racing through my head as Rene worked. I got a bucket and started to dig up the plants in the brick pocket garden above. You gardeners out there know full well what sort of lunacy this nearly drove me into, don’t you?

As you can probably see, the source of the problem was in fact here. He was able to splice into the pipe. And now I have a new sprinkler head where previously I had a plant. But at least we didn’t have to start tearing down the new waterfall. Horror of horrors.

Please tell me you totally understand that I probably would have had to be taken away in a straitjacket? And sedated for days?

In other news, here is the old rusty wagon I bought from the rather toothless man for the sum of $5 yesterday. As you can see, it is really old and rusty. I didn’t think it safe to plant a garden in it, for I feared the dirt would cause the very thin layer of metal to fall through. So for now it holds my gazing balls.

Well, what is important is that I can go to sleep tonight knowing that impending disaster was mostly averted. My garden is patched back together. It didn’t sink. We didn’t have to go farther than the pocket garden to fix the leak. And I didn’t have to be restrained and taken by ambulance to some facility in a straitjacket.

You do understand what this would have done to me, don’t you? Please tell me you do.

Technorati Tags: Gardening,gazing balls,old wagons,decorating the garden