GETTING READY FOR COLD WEATHER

I didn't think any kind of hot tea could compete with my lemon-green tea. Then I discovered Salted Caramel from Bigelow. Guaranteed I'll have a cup by my side this frosty evening.

If you’ve been hanging with me for a while, you might know that a few years ago, our friend and oh-so-handy man, Monty Foust, designed and built our open-air back porch. It’s been my joy ever since as a great place to sneak off to (well, sneak may be overstated as it is only one step away from the kitchen. I’m not so hard to find).

Although I am not much of a napper, I find that out there on the wicker sofa, with the soothing sounds of birds and breeze, I can drift right off. But after eight years of sun and rain, freeze and thaw, some sprucing is in order.

On Wednesday I touched up the two wicker rocking chairs with black spray paint. We had some upstairs space open up due to Brian’s exercise machine. It had a slow death of many years and so many visits from the repairman that he and his family expect invites to Thanksgiving dinner, but it is now gone and in its place is a gym membership. So the porch stuff is wintering upstairs.

The outdoor sofa’s exterior is holding up great but there is a problem. The elastic that holds the cushions in place is stretched out. This is due to us making the mistake of wintering the sofa on the porch one year. So I need to address that issue. And, the cushions need recovered due to sun and stains. My winter project beckons.

I have this OCD thing of wanting to put things away as good as or preferably better than I found them. Not that it always works out that way.

For example, I’m particular, some might say fanatical, about the way I store  Christmas decorations. When they are unpacked each year, I care that the lights work, the ornaments have tops and hangers and there is  law and order in them-thar boxes. Call me crazy.

One year when the time came to put them away, I was down with the flu. I felt so horrible that I told Brian just to throw it all in the boxes because I did not care. Luckily, I couldn’t hold up my head  to supervise the work. I dreaded unpacking it all again in 11 months.

While I certainly am not the best housekeeper, I do like the notion of order.

It’s the time of year when we work from the outside in. How about you? What are your fall projects before the snow flies and the winter winds begin to howl? Speaking of wind and winter, it’s going to be a chilly one tonight. First frost. I’ll be sipping my new favorite hot-tea flavor: Salted Caramel. YUM!

Hey! If you are free at 10 tomorrow (Saturday, Oct. 22), come on over to the Spiceland Public Library. I'm bringing homemade pie. Librarian Kathy Painter is providing coffee, and we'll talk about using recipes in novels, how I decided to write my latest, and whatever else you want. I'll have copies of both books. Meanwhile, grab an extra blanket. You might need it tonight (especially if you haven't turned on your heat yet, as we have not)!

A paint touch-up is in order for the porch rockers. The one on the left was $25 at a roadside sale near Noblesville a few years ago. The one on the right was 20 bucks at a thrift shop. Since they are real wicker (and not the all-weather kind) they need a little sprucing now and then. But mostly, they rock!