There are a lot of great places to hang out inside and outside our house. The house is big and there are different yards around it that have evolved over the years into somewhat individual environments.
The training field has its own story, make that 10,000 stories.
The back, back yard serves as the front yard for the guy that lives in our basement. Explosive Creek runs back there and the view is a zillion trees.
On the side yard, opposite the training field, putting the house in the middle, Ken has created several raised garden beds. This area is also home to the storage shed and our winter wood pile, to which we make several trips a day when it is cold.
Fencing the front yard changed the potential of what we are able to do out front. Not worried about the deer eating everything in sight, or the need to defend ourselves with spears or boxes any longer, Ken planted flowers, lilacs, and a few trees. We also scattered grass seed over the “flat†area — aka the septic field and it looks really nice now, especially right after we mow it.
A few years ago, we hired the good folks at HomeFarm to create a big brick patio out front for us. It has been my favourite place to practice and hang out ever since.
Each morning I stand on the patio before I do much of anything else. Sometimes I mix it up and go out on the back deck, but the patio… mmmmm, delicious. It is a fine practice place.
Yesterday, the sun was shining on the patio. I swear it was warmer outside than in the house. I grabbed my book, found my sunglasses, and layered them over my reading glasses (it is quite a fashion statement), then I spent a couple of blissful hours on the patio. Last night I sat out there as well; watching the night sky. Last summer, Ken and I set up camp on the patio. We wanted to spend the night watching a meteor shower, but we fell asleep almost immediately, waking in the morning, realizing we missed the entire show.
I tend to complain about not having “a view†from our home. But I’m learning — sometimes, it’s not what I see that counts. Sometimes it is more important to take the opportunity to enjoy where I look from.
And for the last few years, I have stepped outside my home in Va and cried because the nighttime sky is filling up with highway lights and illuminated crosses. Until last week, when I turned around and saw the stars spilling down all the way to the horizon. I had just never looked backward before! Sometimes where I look from can be found by changing the way I look!