Come Sit a Spell...

...as my Southwestern VA grandma used to say. My "new" glider - for just that purpose. It's dreamy. You really should come sit a spell. I can make you some sweet tea. Strong and sweet, like Southern women.

We inherited this very sturdy glider when we moved here. In other words, it was free. I love free. It was just in need of a new coat of paint. Here it is in the yard, where it HAD been tucked under a lovely pine tree near a metal firepit. That is, until this other very lovely huge pine tree fell over in the really rainy spring last year. Said lovely, huge pine tree swiped all of the branches off of said lovely pine tree under which the glider was tucked. So both pine trees had to go. This all happened just before we moved in, so pine tree removal was one of the first things on our list last summer.

We did a little research to see what this baby may have looked like when it was new - with the help of Pinterest - and loved the idea of the bright blue paint. I was crazy about the idea of painting the basketweave part white, which is authentic. The HS was less so. But Mother's Day is coming, and my birthday month was three months ago, so he humored me. Isn't it swell?

Here's a bit more of the back porch. A couple of things we (as in the HS and his serfs) have done: removed porch railings, moved some plants to cover where railings were removed, built center stairs, put down a stamped concrete patio (more on that some other day), and painted the porch floor. Twice. First, we just painted it the original porch blue, which I loved. But the constant stream of kids and critters were leaving muddy footprints constantly, which I did not love. So, if you can't beat 'em, you join 'em. We painted the porch floor the color of dried mud. Just kidding; it's really called "Covered Bridge" from Valspar.

Oh, and he also swapped a ceiling light on the back porch for a ceiling fan. But the porch was too low for my 6'4" man - he didn't want to get a haircut everytime he walks across the porch. I thought it sounded  convenient and frugal, but he's rather persnickety like that. Anyway, he had the brilliant idea of hanging party lights across the back porch to replace the porch light. AND, we can now operate them from a switch inside the house, thanks to our excellent electrician. They are deLIGHTful. They look festive, year-round.

And because these are night pictures, you can see our also-inherited torches. They do keep the mosquitoes and gnats away!

And of course, torches and boys go together like...well, like torches and boys.