My Porch This Spring

At the beginning of the week I was starting to wonder if garden shops would have early spring annuals out yet. (The ones I forgot to start indoor myself this year like I intended.) Then as I was running errands and approached one of my favorite spots - Pete's Oasis - I saw the pansy flats sitting out front. Yippee!

A couple of hours later I had filled my old wooden tool box, a free score from when my BFF's family was cleaning out a few generations worth of treasures. They had a yard sale that was more like an estate sale.  Not like the one I stopped at this past weekend, which had actually advertised old tool boxes - one of the reasons I had hoped it would be a promising sale - only to find out the tool boxes were all rusty metal.

Now these cheerful pansies are sitting on the window sill inside my porch, where we've been spending a lot of time again this past week.

I love to use these zinc garden markers in containers and outside in the garden - especially come spring when I forget what I previously planted where. I bougtht a boatload of them many moons ago at my favorite local perennial garden center that made me so so so so sad when they closed.

Another little terra cotta pot sits to the left of my front door on a little folding chair that was my dad's from his growing up years.

I would zoom out a little more in the pictures to show more of my porch if it wasn't a disaster zone. The side that's our seating area was littered with kids blocks that I was too lazy to pick up for the picture. The other side, further to the left of this little chair, is littered with just about everything else - hubby's softball equipment, yard sale treasures I haven't done anything with yet, extra kids carseats, strollers, exercise equipment. Makes my chest tighten up every time I come in and out. Not exactly the serene space that should greet me or my guests when we enter and certainly a horrid first impression. The porch is my BIG project for this spring - to clean it out and completely repaint it from ceiling to floor. (The scratched up floor in that last picture is just a little taste of why.) And get a new screen door. And refinish the wood door. And get new window boxes. And the list goes on. I'll find a way to incorporate some more treasures and do some before and after action here.

Aaahh, I LOVE how spring motivates.