Our Great Outdoors

Mike and I got the keys to our new rental home on a Sunday. And on Monday night, we brought our first of many carloads of our belongings to the new house. We also brought Taylor because we wanted to introduce him to the coolest thing about our new digs - the backyard.

Mike and I have both been city dwellers for quite some time now, each having lived in our fair share of apartments and condos over the years. So for us to finally have a space like this to call our own simply felt unreal.

In our old condo, I sometimes felt trapped because I couldn't ever just walk outside and lay in the grass. Sure our condo building had a courtyard, but I didn't want to be the shoeless, crazy lady laying in our building's shared space. My default excuse for heading outdoors for the past year has been walking the dog. But it's safe to say that we are all enjoying being able to lay (and play) outdoors on our little patch of greenery. (As I type this, Mike and T are wrestling in the backyard. It's a family past time these days.)

Since the new place is a little bit bigger than our condo was (understatement), we've had to do some furniture shopping. And while we still have two bedrooms upstairs without a lick of furniture, we've got all of the outdoor furnishings and decorations we could want.

Mike got a fancy new BBQ because Mike loves to barbecue. And I love to eat his barbecue, so we both win.


We also got an outdoor table and matching chairs. I can't tell you how much I have loved sitting out here. The few meals we've had at this table have been spectacular.


The thing I really got excited about though was the plants. We have plants! A few weekends ago, we drove to home depot and bought a bunch of baskets and flowers to put in them. I am giddy every time I see these little pops of color all over the yard.



We lucked out in the greenery department because our backyard came with a garden. We have tomatoes, cucumbers and banana peppers that grow like weeds.


On Labor day weekend, I shucked some corn we got from a guy selling it by our local park, threw in some tomatoes and banana peppers from our garden and topped it off with a little salt, cheese and balsamic vinaigrette. This was one of the best salads I've ever eaten, and I think it's because close to half of the ingredients came from our very own backyard.


For a while, we thought we had squash as well. However I cut one of the "squash" open and found out it was instead a very yellow cucumber - one that we probably shouldn't eat. Some quick Googling lead us to realize this vine was either infected or we had simply let the cucumbers sit on the vine for two long. It didn't matter too much though. We found another use for them. They are now Taylor's favorite toys!

I am slightly sad because the season of walking around our backyard barefoot has already come to an end. We really only had a month to enjoy it. I also realize I bought a bunch of plants that will be lucky to make it a few more weeks. But after not having outdoor space for so long, I had to try and soak up all that we could from the backyard we now have. The great thing is that we'll have one more thing to look forward to next spring - replanting and spending more than just a month walking around barefoot in our very own backyard.