My Sunspot

A couple of decades ago, when I had my first house, I read my first book about landscape design.  (That's as opposed to gardening.) It really changed the way I approached my own property, and at the time led to my spending a couple of days digging up dirt from one part of my yard and dumping it into a different part, to change the lay of the terrain.

One of the concepts the book urged was to review your property and think about having a "sunspot". This would be an area, probably nestled against the house (though it could be against a fence, but sheltered), that would get full sun for some period of time. They pointed out that with full sun, a surface to absorb the solar heat, and shelter from the wind, often it is warm enough to sit outside comfortably when most people are all bundled up to move from their house to their car to their office.

I've got a couple of sunspots in my house, including a truly great spring sunspot here - in fact, I'm sitting in it right now. (The sun is so bright I have a hard time reading the computer screen; I'll review more carefully for typos when I go back in.)  Imagine a rectangle with one corner missing - I'm sitting outside in that little corner with walls to the north and west of me. It's off the kitchen and porch, and inside the dog's fenced yard. I have major deciduous trees to the south and east, so in the summer its shady, but the leaves aren't out yet. If I look straight up, I see clear sky, because I lost a 100+ year-old tree ten years ago and the remaining trees are farther away and haven't filled in the gap. So all summer, I get a few hours of full sun around noon, even with the leaves on the tree.

This is my personal spot. It is inside the dog's yard, which is a "yard" versus "garden" in the English sense of the word. From my seat, I have a view off over the Park behind my house, but I also can see my two un-lovely sheds, three motorcycles, a rain barrel, a compost heap, a garbage can for bird seed, my ancient barbeque, a heap of firewood, and stacks of unused flowerpots, some with dirt and weeds in them. Not really a prime spot for entertaining.

A couple of years ago at about this time of year I found outdoor wood furniture at Ikea, for much less money than any comparable stuff. I bought a chaise (and then a good cushion for nearly the same amount), and some side chairs, and this has become my little private oasis. Only family, or friends close enough to be house guests ever come here. I totally adore my chaise, and even occasionally sleep out on it.  The best times for sitting here are spring mornings like now, and nights in the summer. I love the forest noises - the tree cover is continuous down into the Park below and so the birds, raccoons, deer and other animals are nearby. Generally, the dog keeps the mammals out of the yard itself, but I've got bird houses and bird feeders and plenty of birds using them.

From time to time I've thought about enclosing this corner, perhaps even as a glassed in greenhouse. I'll probably vacillate again, but right now I really like sitting in the plain air, though out of the main breeze, and enjoying being truly outdoors.