My Urban Outdoor Retreat

                                        

I LOVE sitting outside.  
I love sunshine, fresh air, beautiful trees & flowers.
More than that, I love creating beautiful spaces to sit outside...to read, drink wine, have a delicious meal and relax.
It's also an excuse to go out and buy plants and flowers.

                              

           

Often, I visit the parks in town to appreciate the southern trees that aren't found in the Midwest. We're talking cyprus trees, live oaks dripping with Spanish moss & blossoming magnolia trees everywhere!

My favorite thing to do, however, is sit on one of my own balconies, in what I've started calling my urban outdoor retreat.

I wonder if I'll ever be able to create anything as beautiful as my fantasies...

Sigh....Maybe in Chicago we'll have a larger outdoor space off of the condo.

                

Anyway--I'd already created a corner for my slowly expanding herb garden, but the space was in need of beautification & personalization--I wanted to feel like I was in a real French Quarter Courtyard.

Given that I am a city girl and don't have an entire backyard to create a lush outdoor paradise at home, I'm left to looking at photographs of other people's spaces and trying to come up with ways I can create my own, smaller-scale version of them.

                 

I headed to Home Depot, filled a cart, and got to work. 

The process has been gradual...and I don't have much to work with, 

but I enjoyed every minute. 

So did Apple. 

Started out pretty weak on the plant front.

I'm not done yet...summer has just begun and in the south, 

you can garden practically all year long!

Plans for next phase: 

1. More candles & outdoor lighting

2. Expanded herb garden

3. A citrus tree...probably orange, but perhaps lemon

4. One or two hanging ferns

5. A second chair for one of the balconies