Moving the vegetable garden

Now that the tree guys have done a wonderful job of removing a rather unsightly and out-of-control juniper hedge on the east side of the house, my dreams of moving the kitchen garden closer to water, my attention, and our hungry mouths is looking much more do-able. They even removed an overhanging willow limb so there should be plenty of sunshine for anything I might want to grow.

I will move 5 of the 6 beds built by K and use the lumber from bed #6 to outline a new, longer bed up against the house. This is where I intend to grow insane quantities of sweet corn and sunflowers.

Many of my house dreams are based on the Norwegian smallholding described so beautifully (in both words and pictures) by Mia. I could live in any of her rooms (including the barn) quite happily and the grounds are nothing but inspiration for me. I'm especially in love with her kitchen garden and hope to borrow substantially from her in (re)designing my own.

I'm also continuing to think about a fire pit. Do I want a stand-alone unit or do I want something more permanent?

I like this gravel patch and simple fire ring surrounded by Adirondack chairs but I'm not sure how long it would continue to look good considering that gravel is absolutely irresistible to 8-year-old boys' kicking feet.

At the other extreme is a the gas firepit filled with glass "gravel" - very modern and very much more suited to a retired porn star's home than ours, I'm afraid (or perhaps, glad...).

If there's anything my years of, shall we say, indecisiveness, has taught me it is to choose the more temporary option most of the time because the moment I cast something in stone, I suddenly wish it was made of sand.