8:01 AM

Finding "New" Spaces Around the House During the Shutdown

Hi there! Sorry I missed you last week. It was a busy week for me. It was a week of celebration and catch up. We celebrated my daughter and husband's birthdays and we finally caught up on some appointments that had to be put on the back burner due to the coronavirus. One of which was an appointment to the hairdresser. I finally was able to get my hair cut! Yay! Not that that is an excuse for not blogging, but I did lose track of time :).

My husband officially returned to his real office yesterday. So, once again, new adjustments will need to be made...mostly by me since now I will be at home by myself again. I am hoping it will be an easy adjustment but, to be honest, it was kind of nice having him home.

While Tom was home during the pandemic, slowly but surely, we started venturing out of the walls of our house and started to use the outdoor spaces that were available to us on our property. For years I/we have been creating these spaces to add beauty and to provide entertaining areas around the house. To be honest, while I have enjoyed them for esthetic reasons, most of the time we were too busy to actually use them. The shutdown gave us time to sit and fully appreciate the fruits of our labor.

As time moved on and the weather improved, we found ourselves looking for other areas of the house to take our "lunch breaks" that we had come to enjoy.

It all started in April I believe. We began having our lunch on the side deck. The side deck, before the foliage filled in, overlooked the small pond across the street. Between our property and the pond is a somewhat busy country road. We enjoyed sitting there watching the water and seeing the cars, trucks and motorcycles go by. It was amusing and entertaining. After all, for weeks it had been "just us" with no outside influences.

My husband set up this little scene one afternoon. The photo is not exactly pleasing to the eye but, I think you get the sentiment. We had a great time talking on the phone with some old dining pals while we enjoyed our "happy hour" with some popcorn.

This is how that space looks now that the greenery has filled in and I have planted flowers in the containers around the deck.

One day the weather was a bit more chilly so, I suggested that we bring our lunch out to my flower studio/shed. The studio has a sliding glass door that also looks over the pond and the road below. So, we found some portable chairs and a side table and watched the cars go by.

It is hard to tell from this photo but there is a pond below. The view of the pond was much better before the leaves came out :).

This became our next favorite spot to do our lunchtime hanging out.

As the weather began to improve, Tom set up the old reliable screened porch on the back of our house. Every year he sets up the porch to allow us to enjoy the outdoors while being protected from the bugs. This was our next lunch spot. It also became our dinner spot, as well.

This is one of the views we have as we eat our meals. (I also eat my breakfast here. No need for the dining room in the summer!)

I consider this scene as a "party lights party for two" since it is still pretty much just the two of us :).

Now that the summer is definitely in full swing we have the other side of the deck to enjoy, as well. This is where the BBQ grill sits and truly is more of an entertaining area. Our son and grand daughter came for dinner the other night (we are slowly getting back to normal) and they chatted with my husband while he grilled. I was inside working in the kitchen :/ but it was fun to have family to share our home with again.

The sun has been shining a lot and my flower boxes have been filling in and thriving so, my spaces are looking pretty good...if I do say so myself!

I have often wondered over the years if all our work for creating pretty spaces around the house was worth it. After all, for the most part it was "just us" seeing them. I now know that is was worth all the work. These places gave us spaces to escape to and change things up a little bit at a time when everything was so confining and truthfully sad. I am appreciative of a home that gave us so many places in which to find new joy.

Happy Weekend, Everybody!

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