Flowers, and grass...and patio furniture and pillows and rugs...and.....

Spring has finally sprung here in NE.
For real.

And I can't wait to get my house all prettied up again.  I'm itching to get the patio furniture out and arranged....We need a new screen gazebo for one of our decks, because Hurricane Sandy was a little too strong for the one we had last summer.  Granted, it wasn't an overly strong frame but still.  It took my father and I over 3 hours to install so...to say I miss it isn't an understatement.

I'm thinking I'm going to do a deck garden as well this year.  We have so much wildlife in our backyard that I really can't do a traditional garden.  But one one of my decks I'm thinking I'm going to go back to planting in window boxes and some pretty planter pots.  I've done onions & peppers in window boxes succcessfully - and lettuce and herbs do well in pots - as do tomatoes.  I am really looking forward to doing that.  I wish I could plant lemons!  But those are trees and truly I don't think that they'd be well suited to New England winters.  Something to think about anyway....

I've been browsing online for fun outdoor carpets for my deck, and I've decided that I really really really want to put a pergola over our hot tub.  How pretty would that be, with curtains hanging down?

Granted, our hot tob isn't a Mediterranean pool such as this - and we wouldn't use a such majestic pergola - but you get the idea.  I still think it will look pretty.  Maybe some twinkle lights as well.... We'll see.  Baby steps...

I'm just so happy to have the sun for longer during the day, and can't wait to start living outdoors again.  Coffee in the mornings....lunches and dinners in the yard....winding down in the sun room at night...evenings by the fire pit.

Winter can be fun; snug and cozy, full of delicious comfort food and fireplaced snowy days.  But there's nothing quite as good as the fresh air, and good ol' fashioned sunshine.