fun in the backyard

Sunday we made a little time for lazy fun with friends at home. Sis and RB came by after an afternoon of good music and we had fun doing nothing in the backyard before a simple dinner of grilled tofu subs and salad, with a strawberry pie for dessert.


she is just about to laugh at the punchline we all know is coming

You can tell summer is here because suddenly doing nothing at all seems like a great time. Backyards are just the right place for that kind of entertainment.

HWWLLB has been working so hard on the garden, growing all kinds of tasty stuff to eat and neat things to look at. He has nasturtiums that seem to glow in the dark, flowers that taste like cucumbers, and habitat for all kinds of creatures, from the mockingbird family in the holly bush to the random swarm of ants on a flower. There's a lot to explore in that tiny corner of nature.

I think we have a division of labor going here that works well: he makes it interesting, and I try to make it comfortable. I pick and trim and straighten and he grows and grows and grows.

For a while now I've been looking for a table and chairs for our patio. It's a great spot: shady in the afternoons, with a full view of the garden, yet totally hidden from sight from the front and sides of the house. Here's what I found over the weekend:


wash me

Clearly it needs a coat of white paint, but I'm pretty stoked. Those chairs are swivel rockers. They're so comfortable and so sturdy - it's amazing that something sixty years old still works just as it was designed to, after a whole lifetime outdoors. I believe that says something about how they don't make 'em like they used to, or about our disposable culture, or something, but I don't feel like speechifying right now, because this post is about lazy backyard fun. Though I guess after a beer or two speechifying can be a big part of lazy backyard fun, right?

Aside: I was just realizing how in English we don't have such good words for the end of sentences like the one above. If this post were in German I'd have written nicht wahr? or if French n'est-ce pas? but in English we are impoverished for flavorizers like those, and 'right' was about the best I could do. Is flavorizer a word?

Anyhow, I'll be painting that patio set soon, and then you must come over for a cup of tea. Bring your knitting.