… and it really kind of is, for a lot of different reasons.
When we first bought the Casa, I was incredibly charmed by it because it has a courtyard. It’s not a huge space or anything, and at the time, it was just a bare cement foyer that stood outside the front door.
But.. a courtyard.. now that’s something you could do something with, right? And we held onto that thought for years, while it served as storage or the place where things wouldn’t grow well in the planters except mint… because mint grows everywhere.
And then, one spring, I got one of those twitches I get. I think Rick recognizes them now, and shudders mildly in despair. You see, when I get a twitch, anything can happen. I may drag Mr. Wellman to the nursery and buy more trees. I may book us on a trip to another world. I may suddenly need to visit the craft store and buy yet more yarn. And I may start writing a new book.
I think, in spite of my antisocial nature when writing, Rick prefers the last one just because it means some peace and quiet with his current favorite video game.
In any case, this particular twitch led to putting up pergolas (one on each side of the courtyard), starting a container garden, and dragging our SCA firepit out into the courtyard for use. It became a peaceful little oasis to enjoy.
We were in our newly oasis-ized courtyard when Jake first reached back out to us. We must have spent two hours texting back and forth on that spring evening, and shared pictures of our new outdoor living space. Jake loved it, and kept coming up with more and more ideas to improve it. Lights, rugs, a bigger firepit/table, sheers to hang, faux leaves over the top of the pergola to give that sun dappled shade, a fountain, and to offer a beautiful screen so you couldn’t see all of this from the street, bamboo in the planters that form the archway.
We did all of those things except one and spent many happy hours by the fire, sipping on wine and just laughing and talking. It breaks my heart to say that I can’t remember what most of those conversations were about, really, I just remember being so deeply contented during what was an incredibly turbulent time. And so very proud of who Jake had grown up to be.
For a while, it made me lonely to sit here without him- but I’m trying hard to hold on to the good memories here and let the sadness go. It was in the spirit of that that I went ahead and did the last thing on Jake’s list for the courtyard.
Yesterday, I planted the bamboo he wanted to order to grow up and offer a cool, green screening effect. We’ll see if it works.
And today I’m sitting here listening to what I think is the best form of audiobook I’ve ever heard.. really what the whole art form should be used for to draw folk into a story. It’s available on Audible.com, called Dungeon Crawler Carl, and I highly highly recommend this. I’m sitting here, listening to this audiobook, crocheting a new, light lap blankie, watching the bamboo leaves play in the breeze, and thinking over some of the happiest moments of my life.
It’s not a bad way to spend a day.
Even if it’s not a very authorly way to spend International Book Day, except one part of my mind tells me it is the MOST authorly way to spend the day- enjoying a story.
If you don’t want to try Dungeon Crawler Carl, I tell you what.. I’ll give a free copy of my latest book, After the End, to the first 3 people to comment on this blog post. Normal rules apply- just never tell me if you hate it.
Curiouser and Curiouser 
Peter_Pantheon was here and would like a copy of your book.
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