LA DOLFINA

The Sideyard Well it's Indian Summer in the Bay Area and the living is good! We just replanted our vegetable beds (we had tomatoes all summer) with butter lettuces,  romaine, arugula, beets, and purple spring onions. We refreshed our herb garden too. Actually earlier this Spring we re-configured our vegetable bed by dividing it into 3 4x4 sections and surrounded it with willow edging. It's much more charming and I love being able to walk in between each one. It's fun to see our yard evolve.   It's been a little over a year since we made the big decision to replace the existing brick with pea gravel and we couldn't be happier. A couple evenings ago the light was just perfect so I grabbed my hubby's iphone and snapped some photos to share with you... This is the view out our master bath window. We found this vintage bench on the curb with a FREE sign on it...

Life has dramatically improved around here since we "made over" our yard... We look forward to starting our mornings right here with a deliciously consistent cafe latte from our Nespresso machine, another wonderful "improvement" to our morning ritual! I seriously feel like I am on vacation when I spend time out here. I fling open the doors of our Dining Room and let the outside in. I've always dreamed of a backyard that would rise up to greet me and I'm still pinching myself that it's become a reality! I finally finished the large oyster shell mirror a few weeks ago and am loving how it looks. We also pulled together a nice arrangement under the green Chinoiserie mirror that hangs on the chimney providing a nice focal point.   I dug out this great modern Asian style console table from my prop shop and was thrilled that it fit the space so perfectly!   It should function nicel...

 How did you kick off the unofficial start of SUMMER? We spent the entire weekend in our backyard finishing up the last details so that we can look forward a long lazy summer enjoying it with friends and family.   We were able to plant all the boxwood balls and put our new boxwood obelisk and spiral trees in their pots. We intend on adding more white roses around the boxwood obelisk.   We tried to plant the hydrangeas around the tree but its forbidding roots put and end to that goal. We must wait for our gardener Luis to come with his sharp shovel and hack them out to accommodate them.   We fashioned 3 thresholds from wood we found at the salvage yard, gluing them and nailing them onto some sturdy plywood.  We painted them Paris Gray. We are not quite finished as we need to paint the edges and bury them in the gravel, but we really like they way they turned out. ...