Shabby Garden Room

A few of you have written asking to see more

 of our covered patio outdoor garden room

after my last post about the little garden breakfast tea

I hosted recently for my niece. 

The garden room is my very own girlie space,
 my favorite get-away spot;

a shady cool area to spend in the morning
 and then again in late afternoon
 after the sun sinks below the tall tree-lined backyard facing west.

It's a beautiful spot to watch the sun settling behind the trees.

That is when the sun is shining, which has been RARE lately!

My husband and his friend built this structure for me as a surprise,
 and it was really intended to be just a temporary "porch"until we could afford decided what kind of large

screened-in porch to have built onto the house.

Yet,  all these years later it still stands.

(Probably because they put roofing shingles on it.) 

♥

One of these days we will finally splurge and "upgrade,"

 but for now it really soothes my soul; and gives me respite....

I am so happy to share it & a bit of our garden with you today!

My husband also built the deck here in pic below.

Yes, keeping it real: we need new deck chair cushions,
I should've opened the umbrella for this shot and 
perhaps could have swept a bit.

Blame it on the broken foot, aye?

BTW- we keep the half umbrella up (2nd pic)

 because that side of the room faces the full afternoon sun. 

-

The umbrella helps to keep the space much cooler for longer.

It's difficult to tell but the room is deeper than it looks

 so the umbrella isn't really in the way, if that makes sense.

Depth perception is a bit off in the pic to be able to tell.

~~~~~~*~~~~~~

Every year I seem to change up this space a little bit;-

this year it has a pretty feminine pastel floral decor.

My garden in-ground hydrangea bushes are deep pink,

 because our soil is so high in alkaline.

To get the blue/purple ones I have to buy them like that

 and keep them in pots....and constantly add acid amendments
 to keep them that way.

(Used coffee grounds and tea leaves make good acidic amends to soil.)

I love both colors, so it works for me.  

You will almost always find some birdhouses 

~real and decorative~  around Finch Rest!

Have been resting out panoramic pic taking -
 way too small and skinny but I liked the pic so including it.

This is the first time I've ever shown a pic at an angle
 good enough to see my white candle chandy.

I used our shabby shutters in place of my metal room divider -
which is now in our master bedroom.

I kept it simple because it just won't stop raining.
I haven't even bothered with my decorative pillows this year.

In the last 16 days it's rained 14 of them,
has rained all day today and supposed to rain for 9 more days.


Which is why we haven't been able to paint the wicker.
Which is why we haven't been able to do much of anything!

It's kept my violets alive though - usually they're long gone
with the hot sunny days - it's been super hot
 but not at all sunny, so they're holding on for dear life!

So there's my garden room tour-
the perfect place for tea sipping, visiting, 
reading, bird gazing, praying, resting......

So glad you came along for my little tour!

As always, thank you for your visit!


♥

~Michele

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