Wednesday, October 24, 2007

That Certain Air of Savoir-faire

I've made a discovery. I think our back yard has a je ne sais quoi that is really beginning to bug me. I hadn't realized it until I was talking with a friend and a list of reasons of why I don't like to be in the backyard tripped over my tongue:
  • Patio is too sunny in the Summer
  • Patio is too dark (and wet) in the Winter
  • I have to constantly tell Arthur not to
    • play with the hose
    • go into the tool shed
    • whack the shrubbery
    • molest garden decorations
  • There's no comfortable place to sit
  • There's too much white-trash-detrius and plastic-baby-crap
  • I have to traipse through the garage to get tea and snacks
  • The ground is fairly uneven
  • I keep finding damn clothespins everywhere
  • The neighbors' conversations are audible
  • There's no outside electrical outlets
  • And I still miss my gazing globe

I think some of this could be fixed with
  • a fountain
  • some comfortable storage benches
  • a covered sandbox
  • a raised, childproof, tea bar
  • a series of two foot tall bevelled concrete obelisks
So I started to fix the easy stuff: the patio is surrounded on two sides by a cinderblock wall; last year I created some steps onto the back lawn that made sense at the time, but which cluttered the space. I removed them, and in the process raised up the wall by a course -- it's at a comfortable level for sitting now. I think what I secretly want to do is convert the back patio to a greenhouse / conservatory, but Mark points out why that's wildly impracticle right now. Sigh.

I guess I'll have to figure out where to put a fountain next. And some WiFi.

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