Using beach towels on your garden furniture

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The main problem with outdoor furniture is that it's, well, outdoors. The outdoors is dirty and dusty. I'm a man, so I don't really care, but I've noticed that the gentler sex prefers to sit on surfaces that aren't dirty. And I prefer to have the gentler sex visit me as often as possible! And the solution is beach towels.

There is just something so civilized about having beach towels around. I have several, and I make a point of throwing them into the wash on a regular basis, and buying new ones, too. And so here are a few tricks that I've learned:

• Put them on the chairs. You may be tempted to keep them folded up, but really you can't expect people to go over and find the towels, unfold them, etc. When they see them on the chairs they'll know what to do, maybe give them a shake, inspect for uh, stuff that the birds have dropped (in which case the towel has to be turned over), and sit down in comfort.

• Keep them clean. I may have mentioned that one before. Old, dirty, ratty towels that have been out on the furniture since about the last Ice Age won't do. My beach towels live outside, so when I'm doing laundry I'll wander out and gather them up.

• Buy new ones. I may have mentioned that one, too. Even the nicest towels fade over time. You can see that the one on the left is fading. Also resist the temptation to have a lot of obscene stuff written on them. Please. The one on the right says, *Surfs Up*, which isn't all that bad, but I didn't notice it at target when I bought it. I want the look to be cheerful, but I don't want it to say things that may make people uncomfortable. It's a small thing, but to me it's worth the trouble.

So there you go, beach towels. Not only does it make the garden more comfortable, it makes you feel like you're at the beach!

Brad draws custom cartoon illustrations for publications, blogs, presentations, anything you want. You can contact him at his website BradHallArt.com

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