Two years ago I came home from Olds and my first level in the Master Spinner's program, to find that Hubby had built me a deck. There had been a deck in that place before but this new deck was an extraordinary deck. There were no rails.... there were no steps.... it was not stained.... there was nothing on it.... but it was big. My deck is the size of my house.... In winter this is meaningless... because it is too cold outside to use it.... but in summer time this is wondrous.
At first I was unsure as to what to do with the rails of my deck. There were none and if Canadian building codes had their way there would be no view due to the need for idiots to not fall off the edge, in very short order. Soon I began filling in the edges with salvaged bits and pieces. A log taken out of the house to enlarge a window, an old spinning chair, a Chinese lantern, some neat stones, all bits and pieces I was able to "find". Daughter #1 and #2 made me a bird bath from odds and ends and though it is only a garbage bucket lid upside down on a log it attracts birds when they are thirsty and warm, and offers them a haven too.
I have the great luck of living in cattle country and most of those cattle graze silently the meadows and pastures of the surrounding valley. They also require a mineral supplement that comes in great huge red barrels. I have been lucky enough to obtain 9 of these barrels in which I plant everything from woad to phlox, petunias to peas, lettuce to cedars.... mostly I plant flowers just because they are happy. These great beastly barrels overflow with living things I love to look at or eat. In between these barrels I work hard to place surprises. A garden sheep.... an interesting stone... a birdhouse.... or a set of chimes. My deck has become a secret garden and in it I am safe, I am pampered, I am happy.
Last year I had decided to buy a fireplace... you know one of those silly things that you can buy at Canadian Tire for a couple of hundred dollars. I wanted to be able to light a fire in the evenings when it gets cool. A friend came forward and gave me an old fireplace that would suit a house from the seventies. It is a nasty colour gold and looks a little like a space ship. It is ugly. But somehow it fits. It has character like my big plastic barrels, like my garbage can lid bird bath. It is the best thing about my deck. Maybe not the way it looks but it too is a haven, a place to watch flankers (sparks for you unNewfies) fly into the air on a dark summer night.
I have avoided the rail of my nightmares... my pots of flowers, my little surprises, my fireplace have become the rail. These cast off things surround me with rich personality and make my deck a place I like to be. I need not drive for an hour or ten, I need not take a plane, I just walk out my kitchen door and there it is, a little piece of paradise just for me.
I often spin on my deck, I share meals with my family at a big round table with black leather (and most importantly comfortable) chairs. I rest on the day bed, or dye my wool from the big dyeing cabinet which has become an important part of my deck. The deck belongs to all of us but really the deck is mine... not because I won't share because I'm only too happy to share but it is stamped with everything that is me. Is it Hubby's deck? If you want to say so.... but he doesn't spend as much time there. Is it Duffy's deck? She sleeps there lots but she likes under the deck too. Does the deck belong to the kids? No more than any other part of the house. Does it belong to the cats? Cats don't want to own anything. That deck is mine.
Today I am heading to Fort St. John to get groceries. I have wanted a fountain and I have wanted a reflection globe.... maybe I will find them. Who knows, maybe I will find something else. Who knows what is next... I just know that I like it.
