Waking Up the Porch and Decks for Spring: Welcome to the 168th Metamorphosis Monday!

Preparing the Porch and Decks for Spring: Cleaning and Planting

At the start of this past winter, I decided to try something new.  Instead of tossing the big geranium that lives all summer on the porch, and the three smaller ones visible behind this summer table setting below, I tucked them all away in my garage for the winter.

Amazingly, they lived.  They only needed watering a few times all winter.  I placed them near the windows in the garage so they got a little light, although it wasn't much.  We had a very mild winter here this year, so I'm sure that helped them to winter over.  About a week ago, I brought all the geraniums back out onto the deck.  I placed the three smaller ones back in their stand under the window.  We'll call this our "before" pic for this post.
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Repairing String Lights on the Pergola: Welcome to the 145th Metamorphosis Monday!

A few years ago I purchased some outdoor string lighting from Hobby Lobby.  It was perfect for my deck(s) because it was white and the decks are painted white.  I spent several hours one afternoon, running it around the top of the pergola to the right of the screened-in porch and under the arm rail of the deck to the left of the porch.

Within the year, something chewed through the wiring in several places on both decks.  Eventually I removed the wiring from under the handrail on the deck on the left.   You can just see it in this pic (below) taken before it was removed.  It was so pretty lit up...made me sad to remove it.  But the critter damage was in a place that couldn't easily be repaired.

A friend repaired the damaged area of the lighting on the pergola side.

It was chewed through toward the lower section--the part that runs a few feet away from the bird feeder on that side.

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Candlelier Silhouetted Against a Blue Hour Sky

From time to time I've shared this deck that's located to the left of the screened-in porch. This deck area is underneath a pergola and has a large candlelier hanging above. I really love this outdoor fixture. I bought it right after I added the porch and decks HERE a few years ago. It came from a store (Smith & Hawken) that has unfortunately gone out of business. You can still buy some of their products in Target.




I had a mischievous raccoon break one of the glass globes. :( You can read about that HERE.)

This picture was taken during that magical and somewhat elusive time, the "blue hour."





Recently, I received some wonderful photos from Debbie, a reader of BNOTP. I LOVE it when you share your wonderful photos! Debbie was inspired by the pics of my candlelier. In her e-mail she wrote: "You were a real inspiration in this acquisition! We didn’t have any fixture hanging over our porch table for the years before, but I started reading your blog and saw how homey your porch looked. I really wanted the Smith & Hawken candlelier like yours, but sadly they had gone out of business and someone else beat me to the sale-of-one-floor-sample."





Debbie said, "Shortly after that, we found this one hanging in a store on a trip to Ohio’s Amish Country. ( I don’t remember the name of the store)It was the only one they had and it had an aluminum-like finish. I painted it a similar color to that of our porch walls and voila!"





Debbie took her photos during the blue hour and WOW, her lantern looks stunning against the blue hour sky.





Absolutely beautiful! Debbie, thanks so much for sharing your gorgeous lantern and wonderful blue hour photos. If you here from Layla's "How To" party and you would like to know more about the blue hour and when it "happens" in your area of the world, you'll find exact directions in this post, HERE.




I'm joining in Layla's "How To" Party today with this post. Just click on the link above to read all about the art of taking photos during the "Blue Hour."