Another bargain from a garage sale is a cane chair, of which Zorro heartily approves. It provides a comfortable spot for him to sit elevated, good for hot days where the air can circulate around him. Imagine wearing a fur coat in summer!
No matter what position he is in, he definitely loves it! But watch out Zorro, change is in the air.
Although I am “going troppo” on the patio, because it is December I have made an exception by including some decorative reindeer, which are definitely not found in the tropics.
It is a reminder of our northern hemisphere counterparts who have Christmas in winter, while we often sweat it out under our southern skies here in Australia.
Isn’t it funny how sometimes husbands help you when you least want it? Wives out there will understand where I’m coming from. And husbands, I concede that all spouses can be frustrating, but on this occasion it was him.
This morning I got out early to water the tomatoes, with temperatures expected to be up to 37 degrees celsius. I had just bought a plant from a garage sale and it was on the patio awaiting a new home somewhere in the garden.
After going inside for only a few minutes and coming out again, I asked him, “Where did this water come from?” It was trickling across the patio, creating a potential hazard.
“I just watered your new rosemary plant,” he said, pleased to have been some help.
“But it’s artificial!” I exclaimed.
Now at least we can all be assured that it is a very realistic fake plant!
Do you have a favourite story of helpful husbands?
In the interests of having a jolly holly Christmas, I thought I would make the patio a little more festive. Where has the year gone by the way?
I cut some holly from my real live holly bush, and then I spray painted it gold. I’m not sure how long this will last on live leaves, but it’s worth a try. Perhaps I should have let them dry out first? But then they may have looked withered. Time will tell.
Once they were dry I put the sprays in a little pot stuffed with oasis foam (the type florists use in arrangements), then topped it off with some of my ubiquitous river pebbles.
It now rests on the outdoor table, attached to the umbrella with a cable tie, to prevent it falling over. Underneath, as though they are under mistletoe, are two kissing cherubs.
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Seasons Greetings from Sandi Claus.
Noticing a chair on the patio in need of renovation, I went to my material cupboard and found I still had some of the upholstery fabric left with which I had previously re-covered it with years ago.
It was a simple matter of removing the screws holding the seat on, then cutting a large piece of material out. This time I added half an old pillow underneath for extra comfort.
With my trusty staple gun, the job was finished in almost no time.
I even added a pretty edging of ribbon on the underside. Mini project completed!
Things are moving forward with my tropical theme. I worked on the patio today, rearranging items and putting up a tropical oil painting under the pergola.I enlisted the help of the electric drill and a masonry drill bit to attach the hooks on which to hang the work of art.
These days pergolas are more like an outdoor living room than merely a covering for the barbecue and outdoor furniture. And since all my walls are covered with various artwork in the actual house, I am more than happy to find some new walls to decorate, even if they are outside!
The bonus here is that where I sit at my laptop doing my blog, I can look directly out over this revamped area. I’m especially pleased with the little arrangement of artificial ivy and ferns which discreetly covers the rather ugly, but necessary, outdoor double power point.
Perhaps you need to ask yourself, would I even want striped decking? Whether I wanted it or not, I’ve got it.
The decked landing at the back of our house is known as “the stage” and is an ongoing project. Even treated pine wears out eventually, necessitating removal of rotten timbers to be replaced with new lengths.
It was my husband’s last day of his holidays, so he finally set about this task. He pulled off all the weakened pieces. We even discovered some ferns growing underneath.
They looked really lovely and it would have been nice to have some perspex across that section, similar to a glass-bottomed boat. But then how would the water get through? So those ferns are once again hidden under the deck, but it’s nice to know that it’s pretty under there.
And of course, what would a husband-handyman effort be without a little injury? Sawing the lengths by hand, he managed to give his thumb nail a little manicure at the same time.
It’s stripey for now, but within a few months the new pieces will have weathered and they will all be grey. By then there will probably be others needing replacing, and so the cycle will continue.
Once long ago, in a garden right outside my back door, the time was right.
“Let’s have a pond,” I suggested, envisaging an adorable little water feature.
We decided on a place for the pond, in the middle tier just behind the recently completed brick garden edging.
With a husband still reasonably keen and enthused on occasional garden projects, he set about digging said pond. Because we have a very large block of land for a suburban house, of almost one third of an acre, a tiny pond was not an option. It didn’t look that big when he sketched an outline with the shovel.
He has always been good at digging, and before we knew it, the pond had potential to become a veritable lake.
See, size does matter.
After completing the first set of bluestone-edged steps, it was time to create some more between the middle and top tiers of the back yard.
Feeling he had learnt enough from his stint as the labourer for Garner the Gardener, my husband with his tradesman’s background, and with a little help from a mate, decided to tackle the task himself.
Since we had already sloped the area as a grassy ramp, measuring and digging out the steps was the first task.
Then the walls of cut bluestones were built, followed by the pavers for the steps, with edges of bluestone.
I was so pleased that I had planted some nice little annuals in my new garden bed within a garden. The marigolds and pansies were going to be such a delightful mass of colour.
Now the question is: whatever happened to the two punnets of marigold seedlings I planted? I suspect snails have something to do with it, unless Shadow the semi-vegetarian cat took a liking to them. I prefer not to use snail bait, so maybe I will have to address the problem with some lateral thinking.
All that is left of the marigolds are the little tags that came with the punnets.
It’s not like I’ve never had success with marigolds before. They have provided some beautiful colour in my garden in previous years. Maybe next year I will actually start with some seeds and grow so many that if there is some natural attrition it won’t be a problem, because I will have planted so many.
princessprattles 