Balmy evenings: a party in your garden every night with Soji solar lanterns

Please don't snicker at the word "balmy." Warm summer evenings are coming, even in Bend, promise. Actually, I'm quite happy with the state of the weather here, right now. Imagine being stuck under that heat dome that's making its way east. Yuck! It gives me a headache just thinking about that kind of suffocating, humid heat. We haven't been able to eat dinner outdoors much here, but we will. And when we do, we're ready for you!

One of our favorite products we found at market is the Soji solar lantern collection. Yes, solar lanterns. No wires, plugs, extension cords. They have a neat little solar pad at the top of the lantern that collects sunlight during the day and powers the lantern for hours after the sun goes down. They're made of nylon and are designed for all weather (although we're going to put ours away for winter*). We took a few home to experiment with when we got our first shipment, and we just love them. We've let the sprinklers smack them and the wind whip them, and they're holding up very well. Individual lanterns come in either a round or elongated 'pod' shape, in white, yellow, orange, green, or blue. They have a wire loop that slides right over a branch or shepard's hook... or you can tie a piece of ribbon to the loop (or use an S hook) and then hang it from a branch. They would also look great hanging out from the wall on a hook. The round lanterns also have a flat base piece to allow them to sit on tables, but we've found that wind tends to send them rolling.

We also reordered the solar string lights in the multicolor pack, and they are stinkin' cute. You get ten lanterns per string, with enough space between lights to allow for a little swag, with a nice long lead to the little solar pad, which needs to be pointed towards the sun during the day. You can use one string to decorate a pergola, canopy or fence line... or (if your expense account allows), use multiple strings to create a little allée of lights, like a Provence marketplace in the evening (or like the outdoor dining areas on Belden Place in San Francisco).

We hung our string lights up under an outdoor umbrella (smaller white lanterns pictured), and Robert attached the solar pad to the outside of the canopy, totally out of view, for it to capture the sunlight. When the sun goes down, voilà, our lights come on. And as we so well know, the sun is going down a little earlier every day now. By next month, we'll be eating dinner at dusk in the glow of solar lanterns. In the balmy evenings.

{We just received a new shipment at Pomegranate the other day, so we're fully loaded on all the shapes and colors. Come choose your favorites while the selection is good!}

* A true winter story as relayed by one of our customers: she bought some Soji lanterns last year, somewhere else, and brought them back to her home in Minnesota (Michigan? Somewhere where winters are fierce). At some point before she could put them away for the season, one of the lanterns worked itself free and blew away in the wind. Winter snows arrived soon thereafter, and the neighborhood was covered in ice. One evening she was taking a walk, and saw a glow coming from underneath a snowdrift by the sidewalk. Yep, it was her lantern, which got just enough sun during the day – even buried under ice and snow – to light up at night. Keeps on ticking!