This is a portion of my garden and one of the places my wife and I have been isolating ourselves in the past few weeks. Not just this spot exactly, but the garden in general.
This area is our fire pit, quite clearly, for when the weather permits open fires and we also have a massive shade umbrella that goes up when the fire isn't lit and the weather is hot. It's not a large area really but certainly sizeable enough for 6-8 people to sit around and relax.
We use this area year-round and on warm summer days can be found sipping cool drinks under the massive shade umbrella, chatting, reading, socialising and of course writing blogs with a large percentage of what I write coming to life right here. In the cooler months we also use it a lot as there's nothing quite like sitting around an open fire, the smell of the smoke and crackle of flames as they consume the chunks of wood. It's a little like camping at home and we love it.
Lately this area, and the garden in general, has taken on a greater importance as with virus lockdown restrictions its become our entire world.
We're not the most social people in the world - Certainly not anti-social, just that we prefer the company of a very select group of people and then only in small doses; It keeps things simple. We go out of course however these days with restrictions and many businesses and activities closed we spend most days at home in the garden and inside the house; There's worse places to be I guess.
We're proud of our little spot and feel incredibly grateful to have a bit of room to move as many need to self-isolate within an apartment which must be terrible. We're also proud of this garden area as we created it ourselves. Literally with our own hands. Most of it anyway.
This area used to be a 6-foot-deep in-ground concrete swimming pool. We used it a lot in the beginning but it got less and less use so we decided to break it up and fill it in. The collage below shows a few snaps of that process. That's the part we didn't do ourselves.
We were left with a rectangle dirt patch which we left to settle for about a year or so whilst we planned things out. I wanted to do a vegetable garden however Faith was more keen on something in which we could relax. (Maybe she knew she'd be the one out working the veggie patch all the time...Lol). Anyway, I put my manly foot down and...Not really, she got her way, as always.
What we ended up with is a comfortable garden area that, whilst not fancy, is nice enough. The fire pit element brings it all together I think and certainly makes it a year-round space - Something the pool certainly wasn't.
My wife did the planning and a lot of the heavy-lifting with me lending a hand where required. It was a lot of work for her but at the end we were really happy with the result. It's certainly nothing special when compared against other people's gardens, but it makes good use of the side of the house and has opened up a great spot for us to enjoy all year around.
The garden is relatively young at this stage so the plants have a long way to go but I think you get the picture. Once it all matures a little, and with some additional planting, it's going to be a great secluded garden for us.
I certainly shouldn't complain when it comes to the current lockdown measures in place. They're there to protect us all and considering my lockdown situation isn't too bad at all...Yeah, I shouldn't complain, and I won't.
Faith and I have a comfortable home set up around our needs and we enjoy being home. We're not peopley and don't need to have people around all the time for entertainment and company. We love each other's company, are comfortable individually also and have plenty of things to do. Isolation isn't too bad...Although...Yeah, the virus can stop any time now.
Design and create your ideal life, don't live it by default - Tomorrow isn't promised.
Be well
