I've been outside for several hours each day over the last couple weeks and it makes me appreciate what a blessing it is that we were able to rent this yard. I mean, this house. For those who have never come to visit, let me show you around.
This is the front yard, taken from the right side of the house. You can see our front porch on the right and our driveway just beyond it. The house in the distance is the second closest house to ours.
If you stood in the same spot as the last picture and turned 90 degrees to your right, then you'd see this gate to the backyard. Just out of the picture, on the right side, is a magnolia tree that causes me to rake at all times of the year.
Now turn another 90 degrees to the right and you'll see the corner of our lot, which is also a street corner. The fire hydrant just happens to be a great platform for little boys to do balancing acts and cool stunts on. You can just see the corner of the fence from the last picture on your right. Have your bearings? All right, moving on.
If you walked forward 30 feet from the last pic, toward the corner and turned 90 degrees to your left, then this is what you'd see. It's the side yard. The first tree has a swing hanging from it, though you can barely see it in the picture. It almost looks like a shelf coming off the tree behind it. Our property ends about six feet past the second tree. And no, that's not snow in the grass. It's the love that our two cottonwoods shower on us each year.
Now we'll backtrack and go into the backyard. If you went through the gate that was in a previous picture, then you'd enter the backyard to the right of the swing you see below. This picture was taken from the back patio.
And moving our gaze a little to the left we come to "the mound". That's the name of the area behind the big tree on the left. It's always a mess, filled with trucks, buckets and shovels. The kids spend hours there digging tunnels, building dams and all sorts of other exciting things. It's shady in the summer and dry in the light rain, a perfect place to get really grubby. And those two little trees leaning toward each other in the back? The cottonwoods, evidenced by the white grass all around them.
Now spin a little more to the left. You've turned a full circle now and you're looking at our back patio, garage and garden. What? You want to see more of the garden. Well, forward ... march!
This is the area directly across from the picnic table in the last picture. Strawberries are there from previous years, zukes and flowers are waiting to sprout. That's some sort of wild rose in the background.
This is the area directly across from the picnic table in the last picture. Strawberries are there from previous years, zukes and flowers are waiting to sprout. That's some sort of wild rose in the background.
Well, a sliver got lost between the last picture and this one, but this is directly across from the back of the garage. Tomatoes are in the cages and a gazillion other things are still in seed form here.
I know you wanted a better shot of my super fantastic tomato cages, so here you go. My dad made them for me a couple years ago and I love them!
Feet getting tired? All right, we'll wrap it up. This is on the opposite side of the garage, across from the tomato cages. It's where corn and pumpkins grow. There's actually a heap of blackberry bushes and a dog run to the right of this too. It's a bit of a mess back there. Anyway, if you looked over the fence in the background, then you'd be staring at our driveway, which means you've just looped around our whole yard. Wasn't that exciting?
