"The Empty Room"

That's what we've started calling the upstairs bedroom that we finished last weekend.  It's a misnomer, because the room is far from empty.  But we are keeping it sparsely furnished and uncluttered intentionally, to create a calm, quiet place free from distractions.

 If and when I purchase a new laptop (mine is toast) for school this upcoming year, it will live a quiet and industrious life on this old oak table.  The printer will reside in the office, and they will communicate wirelessly.  No mess of cords and speakers in my work space. 

Today was the third consecutive day of my daily morning yoga practice... a new year's resolution that I am determined to keep.  It is a pleasure to do sun salutations and balance postures while gazing out that window.  Plus, these happy cacti get much more delicious southern sunlight than they did in the kitchen.

That mass of hoop tubing will be moved to a new home soon, after we get some more wall hooks mounted in the office/Hubbybunch's workshop.  Then that hook will hold only a few of my own personal hoops, readily available for me to grab and play with in the wide open space of the room.

This makes me absurdly happy.

In other news, I placed a seed order already!  Some for the greenhouse (scallions, carrots, salad greens, spinach) and some for our future veggie garden (roma tomatoes, brussel sprouts, yukon gold potatoes).  I also bought a few raspberry canes to replace the ones that didn't make it in the berry patch this past year.

We have a LOT of work cut out for us this year as far as the garden goes.  Our plan for the vegetable garden is to terrace the western-facing hillside above the pond.  It's going to be quite the undertaking.  That hill is currently infested with tall grasses, sumac trees, and milkweed.  A dry-stacked stone retaining wall is already built at the bottom of the hill, but we haven't cleared it of vegetation enough to be certain that it is in good shape. 

We have yet to decide what we're going to built the walls with... stone looks best, and allows water to drain between the stones instead of getting backed up and putting pressure on the wall.  However, it is expensive, heavy, and labor intensive to install.  We were considering composite decking material as an option, but that too it pricey, though not so labor intensive to work with.  All I know right now is that I want to do it right, so it lasts for many years and doesn't collapse the whole hillside in a heavy rain.

Either way, I'm thinking Spring!