A Few Little Improvements

I wanted to share a few little improvements I’ve made around the house and yard recently. I’ve lived in my house for 19 years now, but I’ve still got so many dreams for it.

About a month ago I found the neatest little rocking chair at the Planters Exchange in nearby Havana and got it for a song. It’s so cute—petite, with light-blue velvet upholstery, and dainty mahogany arms carved with flowers. The lady I bought it from was really nice. She carried the little chair to my car for me and asked me if I planned to have it reupholstered.

“Oh, no!” I said. “I like it just as it is! I don’t mind a few stains as long as I didn’t cause them. They just add character, in my opinion.”

“That’s what I was hoping you’d say!” she said.

I brought the chair home and set it up in the back bedroom as my cats gathered to watch. So far they’ve been really good and haven’t chosen to condition their claws on the velvet.

Last week I finally hung up some pictures that Rob’s aunt gifted us back in May when she moved from her big house in Tampa to a cabin in the North Carolina mountains. The pictures are really pretty, featuring pink flamingos and other graceful tropical birds, and they’re a perfect fit in our pink sunroom. I had a grand time putting them up. I always feel like a superhero when I successfully complete a task that involves using a level and measuring tape. The cats had fun too. I’d gotten the ladder out, and everybody took a turn climbing to the top.

This summer the meadow garden has amazed me every day with its buzzing, fluttering liveliness. It’s a mecca for pollinators, including butterflies, bees, moths, and hummingbirds. I’ve become such a fan of the meadow that I’ve decided to expand it down around the garage. In March Rob and I removed a Ponkan tangerine tree near the back of the garage (it was damaged in the big freeze we had at Christmas), and for the past couple months I’ve been filling the empty space with Indian pinks, prairie coneflowers, purple coneflowers, and oxeye sunflowers. I also planted a plant that’s new to me—golden zizia, which is in the carrot family, has delicate yellow flowers and dark, fern-like foliage, and is a host plant for the black swallowtail butterfly.