Making a Peaceful Place Just for One

Do you have a special place?  ....A quiet spot to rest and reflect?.....A place that affords you time away from home, yet just outside your door?  I have several of these little places and they are scattered around my property. Yep, right outside my door.  I think it is important to create 'home' in every corner of your space, not just on the inside.  It's hard sometimes to maintain all these areas and they fall into disarray like this.......

One spot in need of some help.

I sit in this rocker chair often.  I picked up a little over a year ago for 5 bucks at an all neighborhood yard sale just a few miles away.  It is a super comfy chair in a peaceful place.  I love to sit here and yak on the phone with my sis uninterrupted, enjoy reading a magazine or sip on a nice glass of chardonnay.  Lately, I have not been sitting here.  As you can see from the image to the right, it's gotten.....well.....unattended looking.  No longer the nice little place to hang out.  Time to roll up my sleeves and do something about this......



Little Green Stand that is rusting.

As I am removing the pots and sweeping up a huge mess of leaves and debris, I discover that this little green stand, that I trash picked off a neighbors pile about three years ago, is starting to seriously rust.  I really want this little stand to last, so I know I have to do a little 10 minutes rescue of the poor thing.  I also make the decision that I want this concrete block under the table to be out on display.

  

Shiny, new red painted finish.

I take out an almost-empty can of my Rustoleum spray paint in Colonial Red , wipe down the stand and quickly spray it red. I don't even take the time to put down a drop cloth. The worn, dirty beach towel will do.  This is a total whim!  "What the heck!"  I say, "I am having to hyper-examine way too much lately with this master bedroom and bath redo. I am not going to justify this decision."  Done.



I had picked up these summer heat tolerant plants at my local garden center, The Garden Gate.  I prefer to buy my plants at a local mom and pop place.  The large package stores like Home Depot and Lowes are filled with plants that aren't specific to my gardening zone.  Donna, at the Garden Gate, always stocks a good selection of both native plants and trees as well as foliage that performs well in my area. 

So, I told you in my blog post yesterday about my spider baby plants.  At the same time I am working on them, I am sweeping and clearing this sitting area.  Boy!  The leaves and dirt can collect like no other!  With the changing seasons (yes, we do have those in Florida) the sun is shifting and it will soon make this area inhospitable for some of my plants.  I shift them to the front of the house because it is shady there during summer. 

Spider Plant Babies



Rabbit's Foot Plant.
Moved to front under water garden.

I amend the plants that I have sitting in the space and add the few fresh additions.  I especially love succulents and desert plants.  They remind me of my trip out to California last year.  Make me smile.

So here is my quiet, peaceful spot "Before" and "After" 



-Before-



Remember my blog post, Give A Hoot Don't Pollute.  Well....at the end of that post, Woodsy found a neato home on the arm of my Adirondack chair at my front door.  Little did I know the peril that Woodsy was facing.  I spent a week stressed out that someone was going to ram the chair and knock the poor fella off!  So.....I had to find a safer place for Woodsy, but still wanted him in a central location so that I could enjoy him on a regular basis.  Here he is in his new home.  My quiet spot.  He likes sitting here and watching the boats go by......

Do you have a special spot somewhere just outside your door?  It doesn't take much to create one.  All you need is an old comfy chair, a place to rest a glass and a little bit of nature.  Oh, and your thoughts........

 -The End-