A Room with a View

John and I are both really into being outside, and pretty much spend all possible time out there. We might be drinking cocktails on the patio, pulling weeds, or reading...All things are better outside (until the mosquitoes arrive).

But still, the yard is often experienced from inside the house, which I think is the case for many many people. Our house is full of old casement windows (sometimes it feels like a fish bowl), so we get tons of light and occasional views of the garden.

I say occasional, because unlike many houses, the living room/family room/den part of our ranch house is located in the front. We don't have a connection between our living space and the backyard - no French doors leading to a deck or patio.

But I think it's important to think about what the garden looks like from various spots in the house, since it is so often experienced in that way.

Here's a view of the back patio from the kitchen sink:

The desert willow just on the other side of the window is in full bloom. It will be nice when this tree has grown enough to shade the kitchen a bit from the hot afternoon sun. The view from one of the bedroom windows:

The wooden screen covers the tankless water heater, but also provides a nice pattern to look at from the bedroom. There's a rosemary plant right in the center that is starting to grow quite well. It'd be great if someday the sun releases it's scent and it wafts into the bedroom through the open window.

This bedroom window (the view from the bed) frames the cozy red Adirondack chairs out on the patio, inviting me out of bed in the morning to sip tea and listen to the birds (um, mostly grackles, actually, but I've recently spotted golden cheeked warblers, a yellow warbler, cedar waxwings, painted buntings, northern orioles, and more...).

The view from the living room of the front yard is a little less refined, in my mind:

The front yard is still that place that I haven't quite figured out. It'll come to me someday. Until then, I love to laze on the couch, gaze out the window, and dream of future front gardens...

p.s. The photo at the top of this post of the winecups is not a view from inside the house. It's to remind me that these plants are beautiful and hardy and should be planted more around the garden.