May 09, 2009

My Front Terrace.

It is a strange Saturday in every way. A far cry weather-wise from last weekend, when the air was warm, no wind to speak of and the sky was clear.
I am always amazed how wrong the meteorologists seem to be at all times – almost. When I woke up this morning and checked the weather forecast, they promised full sun. However, now it is mostly cloudy with a threat of rain. Not my kind of weather at all.

Yesterday was a bad day for me; expecting a quiet day at work, I found myself instead dealing with a serious problem with one of the instruments, while I was all alone in the lab and the boss being currently out of town. This incident ruined not just my day, but also my night, which was sleepless and restless. Even today I can get a “creepy” feeling from time to time. I know I did the best I could, but I cannot help but wonder in retrospect whether I did all that I could anyway.

But, it is all in the past and if I have learned anything at all from previous experiences, it would be to try not to worry about something that is done and over with.

Even though it is cloudy now, this morning was sunny and I got to enjoy a moment of brief sunshine sitting on my front terrace, while having my morning coffee. As much as I love my back terrace, I have in recent years started to enjoy quiet mornings at my front terrace as well.

My house is a one out of five chain houses, all attached to each other forming an L shaped enclosed yard, which we all share. Each house however owns a small piece of land both in front and in the back of the houses. Although they all look the same from the outside, the houses are very different from each other both in size and layout. The size of land owned varies as well. I guess mine is the biggest front terrace. For many years I did not get to use it to its full extend as it was way to open and not very secluded. Five years ago however I realized that the two small decorative trees lining the terrace were attacked by some sort of a disease and were dying. Upon a visit of my parents and their advice and help, I decided to cut down the sick trees and plant four Cherry laurel bushes, which are sturdy and beautiful evergreens that bloom with white fragrant flowers in May. Well, actually I planted two in the autumn of 2004 and two in the spring of 2005. As January through March 2005 was a very cold period with huge amount of snow, I was really worried that my two newly planted (and expensive!) laurels were not going to survive. They were lying down for almost a month under the heavy snow and in the spring they lost all the leaves. But to my astonishment, in May that year they grew all the leaves back and today they line my terrace, creating a wonderful serene spot. The front garden is facing southeast, meaning it receives sun mostly in the earlier part of the day. Considering that the wind here almost always comes from the west, it is a wonderful, shielded spot and visitors that pass the bushes in bloom often stop to look at them with awe and admiration.

While spending those few precious moments of sunshine there this morning, my mind was slowly put to ease.

9 comments:

steviewren said...

Your front terrace is lovely. It must be so pleasant to sit outside and have breakfast. Everything looks green and lush.

It has been storming and raining here all week. The humidity is high making everything stay wet all the time. I've had to turn my air conditioner on just to get the humidity out of the house.

I talked to my son a little while ago. He said he will be finished with my computer sometime this week. Yahoo! I'm babysitting at my daughter's this afternoon while they go to the movies to see the new Star Trek movie. The baby is napping and I'm taking advantage of their computer. Hopefully I will be back online by next week.

Sorry about your rainy day and the malfunction at work yesterday. Hope the rest of the weekend will be better.

sallymandy said...

Beautiful. Thank you.

I'm sorry you had a bad day at work. Enjoy your Sunday, and hopefully next week will be better.

xo

Zuzana said...

=steviewren,
ah, how nice to hear that you will be online soon! We have missed you so, I am sure I am not alone in saying how I miss your refreshing posts and drawings.;)
I can so understand how frustrated you must be.
Thank you for stopping by during the little and limited time you have online; hope your Saturday was lovely while babysitting.;)

=sallymandy,
thank you dear friend. My Sunday was a bit more sunny, inside and outside.;)
Always love when you stop by.;)
xo

Absolutely Ladylike said...

Such a great work you did here. I love your terrace and the flowers...Hope you've had a great weekend and forgot about that hard day at work :-) Love: Evi

Zuzana said...

=Evi,
yes, thank you, my weekend was fine, just a a bit too short. Thank you for the lovely compliment.;) xo

Gal Friday said...

I have been thinking of you and your work situation. I hope the worst is all truly over now(although I can understand that "creepy" feeling when your mind goes over and over what happened). Good to know you WERE able to enjoy the weekend on your pretty and semi-private terrace. I love the color)a bright cobalt?) of the pots you have, too!

Zuzana said...

=Tina,
so kind of you to be concerned about my work troubles, I truly do appreciate that.;)
Yes, the pots are blue and Vietnamese I think.;) The colourful flowers looks so good in them.;)
Thank you for your kind words.;)xo

Noelle Chantal said...

Your sunny morning on your front terrace sounds so relaxing. I can imagine you sitting in your coffee table set and looking at your beautiful bloomed garden.

That Cherry laurel bushes are so pretty and puffy! They look so perfect as a divider in your garden. Good thing they survived the snow and poof they became so healthy and pretty in your garden! :)

Zuzana said...

=Noelle,
the laurels are now in full bloom and the flowers spread a very sweet fragrance across the yard. There have never been so many flowers on it as there are this year.;)