Waiting at the Gate...

Yesterday I had a post surgery appointment with my doctor, and I got some good news. In about a week I will be able to start walking AND driving! I will be out and about just like normal people! Well, almost, I will still have to go to physical therapy to get my muscles in gear... and I think I have forgotten how to stand up straight.

That means I will be outside more. So I will be able to enjoy our newest edition to our outside amenities, which my hubby added last weekend.
He has put in a gate and steps on the south side of the deck.

Now we can just open the gate and walk out to where the peonies grow, take a shortcut to the cherry tomatoes or to check to see if the cherokee rose is blooming yet.

Doesn't seem like much of a big deal, I guess. but before the gate, we had to go down the steps on the north side and walk all the way around the fence to get to the other side, OR go through the house and out the front door and down those steps.

He bought the gate at a local store, Clifton and Warren, which supplies feed and grain, fencing, and even baby chicks in spring. I have always liked these metal gates with the curlicues on the top.

The cats find the gate very interesting. They haven't tried to go under it yet, they just kind of stand there and look through it, somewhat surprised that they can see us.

The steps below are a combination of concrete and local rocks. They are a big improvement. Before there was just a path formed out of the red clay soil. Dusty and slippery in the summer, and slick and slimy in the winter (well, not this winter, not yet anyway...)

Out I will go to weed the little hill which will soon be covered with naked ladies (amaryllis belladonna) leaves popping out of the soil. Or I can use it as a shortcut to go out and pick daffodils. Oh, the possibilities!

It is a gateway to my return to a mobile life, it beckons to me, it is tempting me...

I can't wait to open it and walk through!