The Front Yard

This is the view to our front door which is off to the right of the photo. Since we have moved in and taken over the yard work, there have never been people more happy to show off "dirt". Boy has helped quite a bit and earned some extra money for more Legos. (Hint to the family: anything with knights and sword in a Lego format, he'll totally love it forever).

The yard is all rain-washed and fresh this morning. It's coming along. It's by no means a perfect, thriving lawn, but we have done all the big stuff by pulling out the ivy and preparing the yard. We water regularly, dig out the weeds here and there, we have pulled all the rotting wood trim around the yard and even tried to revamp the sprinkler system. There's still much to do; rototill, put some fertilizer and grass seed down and then see what comes up. We have rediscovered the citrus trees. We have a lemon, an orange, a guava and there was another citrus tree with our orange. A friend of ours who used to own a nursery couldn't identify the tree. It had huge, gnarly looking spiky thorns. So, I cut that thing out and I think the orange tree is much happier.

Our lemon tree is bursting with new leaves and blossoms. I can't wait to make fresh lemonade with fruit from my own tree. Well, technically, the trees belong to the owners, but I don't think they would mind us using the fruit. You see that rose bush covered with roses? When we moved in it was full of dead branches and only had one or two flowers. I cut the whole thing down and added a bit of water and POOF, beautiful blossoms. You can't see it, but in the back yard, past the gate and the black thing (which is our BBQ) I have another rose bush with deeper pink blossoms.

I never thought I cared much for roses, but now I just love them. I guess it's like that with anything you invest a bit of yourself in. Hmmmm........

~~Mama