backyard

Snail Friend

Image description: a close-up photo yellow-gold snail shell (with a snail inside) affixed to a green maple leaf. There are other leaves and maple keys right behind the first leaf and in the out-of-focus background is a white plastic chair against my red shed.

Do I know that snails can be pests? Yes.

Do I love them anyway? Yes.

Last night while I was meditating in my backyard swing, I accidentally opened my eyes at one point and spotted this snail on a leaf across the yard.

I thought ‘I hope he doesn’t move before I finish meditating and get over there to take a picture.

Then I realized time was on my side because a snail travels at snail speed so I went back to focusing on my breath.

Working Outside

I can’t decide if it is easier or harder to get things done when this is my view.

A photo of potted flowers at the corner of a patio deck.
Image description: the corner of my backyard deck across from my chair. I stood up to get a better angle. The focus of the picture is an arrangement of pots of flowers, some are on a wire rack, some are on a table and some are on the deck floor. The flowers include begonias, a variety of dahlias, some marigolds and others and they include pink, purple, red, and yellow flowers. The corner of my blue yoga mat is at the bottom of the photo and my shed, trees, and some green grass with a large patch of sunshine in the middle is in the background.

Decisions, decisions – a good problem to have ;)

This is the kind of evening I dream of when I feel tense or when it feels like the winter will never end.

I’m sitting on my patio on a warm summer night, deciding whether to draw or to read while I drink my (non-alcoholic!) beer.

A photo of a table with a bottle, an ereader and a sketchbook and markers on it.
Image description: a angled-down view of a small red patio table with a bottle of Corona Sunbrew non-alcoholic beer (which is covered in condensation), an e-reader in a blue and gold patterned case, and an open sketchbook with six markers on top of it. In the background there’s another patio chair, the bottom of the railing, and the end of a string of warm white lights.

Selective viewing

Parts of my yard are still a mess but from this angle, things are starting to look quite summery and inviting.

A photo of part of my yard - grass, a fence, a swing, and a lawn chair and some flowers.
A photo of a section of my backyard. The foreground is mostly lush green grass and toward the back of my yard is an orange Adirondack style plastic lawn chair, my green circular swing, some trees with leaves starting to come out, some wildflowers, and a weathered grey fence.

A sunny day!

Today was supposed to be cloudy and 5 degrees but the sun decided to make an appearance instead.

It’s ridiculous how much better I feel just because it is a bit brighter outside.

Even the winter-dingy mess of my yard can’t detract from the fact that my swing is inviting me to hang out outside for a while.

A saucer swing hangs from a tree in a early spring backyard
Image description: a photo of the corner of my yard on this sunny day. Most of the foregoing is yellowed grass and old leaves with shadows of bare tree branches but at the back, near my wooden fence are two larger trees, one of which has my circular saucer swing with green trip hanging from it.