Creating Our Backyard Oasis

Hi y'all!  David and I have begun our backyard oasis projects.

I am painting chairs at the moment.  I have a little bistro set that is

tucked back into the ginger along with a garden statue.  The bistro

set was white,  but I have started to paint the set a soft sage green

so that it blends in a bit more with all the greenery that surrounds it.

Here it is now with the first coat.  Much more subtle and I know I am 

going to like the pieces better now.

We bought new cushions for the patio furniture.  We have an inherited

wrought iron set that includes a settee, two lounge chairs, a coffee table

and two end tables as well as this chaise lounge.  I would show it all to

you right now, but I have to clean off all the pollen that is covering 

the patio.  My yard man came last Thursday and spent over four

hours mowing and raking and fertilizing.  Everything looked so pretty.

Then a big storm blew through that night and once again the patio was

covered with leaves and pollen.  The live oak trees are still shedding,

almost done but not quite.  So I will be hosing everything off.  I

would have done it before today, but we have been having very high

winds up until now.  That's what it's like when you live on the

Gulf Coast.  

We purchased a wall mounted water fountain for a little niche on the patio.

I need to get some big tropicals for either side that will help to cover the electrical

cord.  We hung up those little patio lights that you see at Costco, and Pottery

Barn and Lowes ~ just about everywhere.  They follow the eaves and it

looks really pretty at night.  I also picked up three big Boston ferns to hang

from the porch.  I'll be showing you everything once we get it all put 

together.  We are planning a lot of garden parties at our house this

spring and summer.  The first one will be in a few weeks for our neighbors

who, sadly, will be moving to Houston for a job transfer.  Our 

immediate next door neighbors and David and I will be really sad to

see Chrissie and Raul leave our street.  We have had so many fun

times together.  They will be greatly missed, so we are planning a big

send off.  Houston is only two hours away, and we will still get

together, but it won't be nearly every weekend like it's been for the

last couple of years.  Isn't it sad when you have a great group of

neighbors who really like one another, and someone gets transferred?

That's life I guess.

My headaches are disappearing and my eczema is improving, so 

y'all will be hearing from me more often this week.  Antique Week

up in Round Top will be starting soon, so I'll be covering that

for you too!

PS:  Bentley is losing his girl friend Bella when she moves

to Houston with her family.  I know he will be sad too :(

I have not broken the news to him yet.

Big Texas Hugs,

Susan and Bentley