This morning in my yoga class my teacher shared a dirty little secret.  She used to smoke <gasp>. This is confession was part of her sharing a realization that when she once had this habit (many years ago) it did have a very positive upside…..she did it outside.  Part of her smoking habit was to retire outside in the evenings with a cigarette where she enjoyed hours of just looking at the stars and whiling away the evening over smoker chatter.  It reminded me of doing the same with my grandmother (she too smoked) under a crabapple tree on her ranch.

It also touched a familiar nerve.  She was sharing this story to say that she is trying to find new ways to make that outside living part something that was part of a new life habit (but w/o the cigarettes).  I too have been searching for a way to make my lifestyle more inside/outside.  I grew up eating dinner on the deck nearly every summer evening…and I really miss that casual time that we don’t share now.

I have examined the problem and how to fix it for me.  I have a couple issues….first is that my current house doesn’t have a deck or a patio or any place where such a thing could take place.  Further, now that we are building a patio…it doesn’t have doors to easily access it.  Then there is the comfort issue (Colorado does not have the bugs that Massachusetts suffers).  So my solution is to three-fold (and I am working phase 1) build a patio first , then open up a way to get to it, and then deal with the bugs.   My yoga teachers solution is a little different.  She too is building a new patio but her key elements are a fire-pit and a hot tub (outside sit-down dinners aren’t on her agenda but hot-tubbing is).

So I’m curious, do you regularly hang out outside?  If you do, what draws you there?  And if you don’t, why not?  Is it bugs, it is overlooking neighbors, other comfort issues, lack of place, you prefer to be inside?

I am going to keep sharing our progress with you as we resolve our ‘get back to living outside’ issues.  I think I might try to share my yoga teachers progress as well.  But I would love to hear your excuse. What keeps you from enjoying your outdoor living space? – Maybe we can chat over ways to tackle the challenge?

You might remember a post from last fall when we broke ground ( I wish I could find it!). But here is where we are today.  The cobbles are almost all in (with the exception of the step) — they settled over the winter and need a little finessing….soon we will put in the polymeric sand to lock them in tight and then we will move on to build the pergola over the top.  More to come….