June: Summer Nights!

June has arrived.  School is out, the sun is up until 8:30, the constant rain has been replaced by just afternoon showers, and the days are getting warmer while the nights remain cool.  There are few bugs here and at least on our street we are blissfully mosquito free without having to spray so we're starting to open up the balcony doors upstairs to let the cool night air into our bedroom.  

Yesterday we hunted up our wonderful Pottery Barn copper lights and put them up outside on the patio.  Ours are old and apparently aren't sold anymore, but they look like the ones in the photo below  except the edges are ruffled.  We hang them from black wrought iron shepherd's hooks which we put in the ground along the fence line.  Our strand has ten lights,  just the right number for illuminating the wall/fence between us and our neighbor. 

Since there is no electrical outlet on that fence line we had to run power from the deck.  Ben drilled a hole in the deck floor next to the outlet and Paul crawled under the deck to pull the cable out to the fence line.  So nice to have men around the house!  

I love how these lights extend the useful space of the patio at night.  Now when we sit on the deck and look towards the patio we see enticing bits of lights instead of deep uninviting blackness. 

Sitting on the deck after dinner last night  (Thai Chicken with Basil; really good!) listening to SirusXM on my  computer, the lights beckon me to walk down the steps to the patio.     

The lights do a great job of illuminating the deck stars; no more falling down them at night for me!

Here we go!

 Heading to the sitting area at the end of the patio, a great place to sit and relax in the cool evening.

Looking back towards the deck I think the flat flagstone area will be a great place to put a long rectangular table when Ben's brother's family comes to visit in August so we can eat out in that area.

The teak bench at the foot of the deck is a lovely place to sit and look at the night sky.  Or to write blog posts!