No, we didn’t do something crazy like adopt a baby or get a puppy.

My cousin Bob says he hates coming to my parties because all the food looks fake.

We decided we weren’t getting enough use out of our backyard. It was lovely, but the large, flat stones with thyme growing around them made it difficult to drag chairs in and out from the table and was a nightmare to keep weeded. So I didn’t and it was a mess. We’d move the table to the driveway when we’d have a party and deemed it our concrete patio. And other than watching the birds from my kitchen sink I didn’t have a good spot to sit and enjoy the wildlife. We needed a screened in porch. Better still, we needed a 3-season room.

We’d contemplated doing this a year ago, but the costs were higher than we’d hoped and Steve was lukewarm about the construction company we’d talked with, so we put it on the back burner. But when Steve saw the room on our friend Bob’s house, and how well it had held up after 18 years we took another look, and invited the company he used to give us a quote.

Yes, it was still expensive. But a 1 year-no-interest-deferred-payment-plan is hard to resist, especially since that timing puts me right in the sweet spot to be able to access some retirement funds without penalty. So we went for it.

Turn around was quick. We knew we’d be away for a couple of weeks this summer so we scheduled it for after our return. And aside from a little snafu with the decking materials that took a week or so to resolve (don’t get me started) it went quite quickly. So we threw it a Pre-Hurricane-Christening-Party last Saturday to test it out.

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The menu? Brined and grilled boneless pork chops with a black olive and caper relish, potato salad, fresh corn on the cob and arugula and tomato salad with lemon basil vinaigrette. Fresh figs are in season so I stuffed them with St. Andre triple crème cheese and wrapped them with prosciutto. My cousin Bob says he hates coming to my parties because all the food looks fake. I’ll take it as a compliment. Guests brought desserts from apple pie to decaf coffee ice cream (made especially by my friend Jinx as she knows I can’t have regular coffee ice cream anymore and I miss it), Portuguese pastries, chocolate cinnamon cookies, a chocolate caramel whipped cream cake, brownies, blondies and a cherry pie. Nobody went hungry, and nobody spilled anything fatal on the new carpet or the new chairs.

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The room is officially Christened, my new Squirrel Buster Plus bird feeders have been installed, and I now happily sit in the mornings and watch my feathered friends. And my furry friends try their best to break into the feeders. Nothing like crazy squirrels for entertainment.

And if you haven’t seen the horse head squirrel feeder video click here.

Deborah