I like simplicity. If you look again at that patio photo in my previous post, you will note there is very little on my patio. I have one wrought iron table and chair set, one barbecue grill, and two cat beds, one being a large chaise lounge covered in an old blanket. The patio gets very dirty during the winter as it is open on two sides, the two sides where all the wind blows in leaves and yard trash. I want very little out here that will need to be cleaned. The cement floor can easily be washed off with a hose and sprayer. The chairs and table take a little more work. This morning I spent time on those.
I shared these photos last year, and the scene this year is very much the same:
The wrought iron chair frames
The cushions were recovered a few years back. I think the original ones were pink so I that’s what I had the upholsterer use this time around:
Cleaning the chair cushions
Although this furniture originally belonged to Terry’s mother, I have had it for over 20 years. I am planning to keep it and perhaps sell it. The upholsterer told me these sets sell for about $2000. For now, I am sitting here, at the table, sitting on one of the chairs, typing this post, enjoying a moment of complete calm.
The smell of jasmine wafts through the air. It’s coming from some other yard as I don’t have any flowering plants in mine. The soil is just not conducive to growing flowers. I have two mock orange shrubs that bloom earlier in spring and make the yard smell wonderful if I can get out here to smell them at that time. The past few years have been missed as the weather and my crazy life have kept me elsewhere.
It is quiet out here and my mind has had a chance to slow down. I’m getting more of a sense of what I want to do for my next career. I’m not too sure if there is such a job description, but I would like to take pictures and tell stories for non profit organizations. I love to talk to people, to hear their “story,” I love to write, and the picture-taking thing has gotten to be more and more fun. Oh, and I have that marketing degree. So, now I need to figure out a way to package this idea to some non profits.
Tomorrow I return to the last hectic days of the end-of-the-school-year. Final grades, graduation, checkout, and a few parties thrown in for good measure. It will all be a whirlwind, and I won’t be sitting out here, on the patio, enjoying the jasmine-scented breeze, for a long time. But, for now, it is pure pleasure.
