Installing hardwired, outdoor lighting can be a big, expensive, all-too-often unaesthetic hassle, forcing you to put lights where you really don’t want them, and use commercially produced fixtures that are less than enchanting. One elegant, inexpensive solution is solar lanterns.

My favorites are Allsop‘s faux Japanese shoji solar lanterns available in a rainbow of lightweight polyester that mimics silk. Hang them anywhere outdoors where they receive at least 6 hours of sunlight on the small solar cells located on the top. They begin to glow as soon as dusk falls, and continue until around 4:00 am, when they slowly wink out, one by one.

 

I wish I had a photo of my friend’s back yard in Taos in January, buried in snow, barren trees, with a swinging line of bright red lanterns reflecting like glowing red cherries on the ghostly lawn.

 

*On the rare occasion of a blue moon, I like to give an evening lawn party with a blue moon theme. Food, costumes, moony madness. Your imagination can fill in the blanks.

Shoji lanterns are available from Amazon and from Allsopgarden.com.

—Susan Dworski

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