. "Dido" is now winging her way to my place for a visit. She should be here just in time for lunch. 
It will be a short overnight visit so I haven't planned too much. What's nice is that the 1st 3 activities all take place in the same location.
1. A walk on our paved walking trails.
2. The butterfly party and pet adoption event.
3. Art exhibit
4. Drinks on my new patio.
5. Dinner out with dad.
Here's the new patio, after I "decorated."
What you see is the well cap, which I'm pretty much stuck with, so I decided to have them do a circular walkway around it that leads to an old set of stairs going to the driveway.
The pagoda on top of it is only missing its top; I found it at the landfill and brought it home. I stuck a flower pot in the top instead and will maybe put some vinca vines in there so the vines cascade down and soften the concrete look. Can't plant too many flowers because the woodchuck will eat them. If anyone has any other ideas for softening/beautifying the look of the ugly concrete, let me know!
I really like the 2 rattan-look planters. They are actually some kind of vinyl, so they'll stand up to the weather, and were just $20 each at Aldi's. The flowers were actually more expensive.
I just bought this fountain for the patio and I really like it. A pump sends the water bubbling up to the top, where it then overflows and cascades to the lower level "cups" you see. I threw some colorful marbles in there just for fun.
Since it's a plug-in, I have it near the one outdoor outlet I have, which conveniently is close to the kitchen window, so I can hear the sound of trickling water if I listen carefully at the sink.
Here's a little garden inside the paver walkway, filled with ground phlox, mostly. After selling all my other perennials back here, I decided to keep the phlox. It's not looking so spiffy at the moment as they pulled out and killed a lot of it but should be fine next spring.
Weekend fun
June 9th, 2018 at 02:46 pm
June 9th, 2018 at 06:23 pm 1528565026
June 10th, 2018 at 04:26 am 1528601190
June 10th, 2018 at 04:50 am 1528602644
I just bought black vinyl planters almost identical to yours for the front porch.
June 10th, 2018 at 02:09 pm 1528636146
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June 10th, 2018 at 08:02 pm 1528657344
Enjoy your weekend!