Yard Art

One of my favorite leisure activities is doing yard work--the sweaty, dirt-caked kind.  After the work is over I find a shady spot to sip my ice water and appreciate the beauty of the trees, birds and breeze around me.  Another aspect to weeding, watering and transplanting perennials is satisfying my quirky need to add found art to the gardens.  Which leads to another favorite leisure activity of mine, hunting for man-made beauty to complement the flowers and foliage.

When I saw this pitcher/teapot at Thrift Quaker I became frozen in place; how could something so beautiful still be on the shelf?  Examining it I saw a tiny little broken spot on the spout, which probably made it ineligible for taking to Antiques Roadshow.

It was pretty expensive for my purse at $7, but I brought it home without hesitation.  The swirls of blue and green, the rich autumn colors in the side and lid decorations--couldn't pass them by.  By gluing the lid in place and stopping up the spout I could easily convert it into a garden delight, right?  Even though it is delicate I could use fishing line to tie it securely to a shelf on the plant stand and if it broke, it was only a few dollars lost, eh?

No way.  All it took was a few days on a fern stand in my dining room, with me admiring it in all kinds of light, and my protective instincts kicked into place.  It even looks beautiful in silhouette, with just a faint glow of sunlight through the blinds to transform it into another color I love, deep cranberry.

Put this baby outside, with gusty winds assailing it and birds aiming for it?  Never.

Do you see how doing yard work and "decorating" a yard can be an ongoing, satisfying leisure activity, with a blend of dynamic and fairly sedentary components?

It works for me.