Outdoor Summer Dining Space
DO YOU ENJOY DINING OUTSIDE DURING THE SUMMER MONTHS? I’M SHARING OUR FIRE PIT PATIO AREA WITH YOU TODAY. I’M JOINING JENNIFER AND SEVERAL OTHER BLOGGERS IN THE COZY LIVING SERIES. MAKE SURE AND CLICK ON THE THUMBNAILS BELOW TO SEE WHAT EVERYONE ELSE IS SHARING THIS MONTH!
Are you all for it or totally against dining outside on the patio during the summer months? It’s something that I enjoy and do so quite regularly with my lunch meal. I tend to take my iPad along with me and catch up on things while I eat on the covered front porch.
We have 4 outside porches here at the cabin. Two are covered, one overlooks the back 40, and one is on the walkout basement side of the cabin out by the fire pit. No matter what time of day it is I can always find sunlight or shade; whatever I fancy. As I get older I try and keep my face out of the sun as much as possible. If you catch me outside on a sunny day I always have a hat on to shield my face from the damaging rays.
Here in Michigan we I see so many months of cold and snow that I like to take advantage of the nice days and make the most of them. I just can’t get Hubby on board with me. He says he doesn’t want to fight the bugs for his meal so we never eat outside when he’s home. I don’t want them landing in my food either but I don’t mind waving my hand and shooing them away from time to time.
I’ve tried several ways to keep the bugs away and what works the best seems to be lavender. Placing a big ole’ lavender plant in the middle of the dining table keeps the mosquitos and flys away. Every year I pot of a few plants in my galvanized sap bucket just for this purpose. It’s the best bug repellent I’ve found so far.
Do you have any tricks that keep the bugs away when you eat outside? What’s your favorite meal to have? And do you dine on the patio often? Leave a comment below with what works for you!
Creative Cain Cabin / Town and Country Living
YES to outside dining! I just had breakfast on our deck by the pond. You are SO lucky to have 4 porches!! I can’t even imagine how wonderful that must be. Surprisingly, we don’t have a lot of bugs by our pond – unless you count dragonflies, bumble bees, and butterflies. I don’t know how much it helps with the bugs, but I planted several pitcher plants this year. Two are inside the pond, one is in a container. I love your patio dining set! I’d be out there all the time.
Jennifer, I bet it’s beautiful by your pond. I’ve never heard of pitcher plants I’ll have to look that up.
We love eating outside in the summer! We have a wrought iron table in a side area just off of our kitchen, so it is easy to prepare our meals and then head outside. We enjoying entertaining out there as well. Even though it is shady we have an umbrella there as well. Now I’d just like to incorporate a fountain and some party lights! I like to light candles to keep away the bugs, but I am grateful for the tip about the lavender. I will try that! I live in Southern California, and interestingly, we have very cool weather with fog in the early part of summer. So I often have a jacket on when we are outside. Now it is starting to get warmer, so no jacket has been needed. Thanks for your cute post!
Hilary, I’d love to have party lights also, but we has such extreme weather I’m not sure how they’d hold up.
We live in Georgia. We dine outside all the time. We love it. We can dine outside until about October. Come November we use our outdoor fire pit until about May. Just love being outside all the time.
Judy, that sounds wonderful. We use the fir pit in the fall but it’s too cold in the winter when we’re buried in snow. I’ve tried it but I just can’t get warm enough to sit out there.
This looks like such a pretty spot to sit and enjoy summer! We love eating outside spring through fall. Our porches really such an extension of our homes and you’ve done yours beautifully, friend. 🙂
Amanda I use ours every day but the rest of my family likes it indoors.
Your outdoor eating area is so lovely and cozy. We, too, love eating on our upper deck off the kitchen. It’s shaded by tall trees and a patio table umbrella. We have a high view of our backyard garden and paths I’ve carved out and planted over the years. To keep mosquitoes and bugs at bay we use a couple of electric oscillating fans. The bugs don’t like the air movement; the fans help tremendously in our hot and humid Charlotte NC summers. I love drinking tea in the cool of early mornings and listening to the birds singing. I love listening to the katydids in the evenings and lingering over dinner.
Carol, I think thats why we seldom have mosquitos: our property is on a hill and always extremely windy. I have people say all the time how bad the mosquitos are and we never notice them.