Trees, yard, garden, green spaces!!!

My cousin brought me a few trees the other day. Well, actually more than a few, 10 to be exact. We'd already planted 5, 2 we'd gotten free and 3 we picked out as shade tree. The only problem was we didn't really plant them where we REALLY really needed shade, which we didn't know until the summer hit and so did the sun on half the house- which was great in the winter and a bit toasty now. So I took the 10 trees, put another in front and 4 of them in back. Now we have a great garden space ready for the spring, a sand pit and a forest. We hope to rebuild our play structure amidst the forest in the spring for next year (OK I hope to, if you're reading this Brian, be warned, it's coming!) I would have made a little cluster of trees by our walkway, but then remembered why we didn't plant there earlier, a bunch of electric lines run over that space to our house. We are hoping the little twigs grow, so I guess I have to take that into account. So I ran over to a couple neighbors and was glad to be able to share the wealth and make our neighborhood more tree filled. Brian's a sucker for trees, which is why I need to take him here:



This was where Janet, her kids and we met up. There are little trails in these ravines. At first I had thought that it was just a little play area, but then Janet took me on a walk through it and I was actually quite lost. The kids had a blast blazing trails, and we could usually hear them in the distance. A few times we thought we should probably check to see how they were, but then they would surface again with the huge-est smiles on their faces!

Janet went back to get Kellen's bike so that we could go to get ice cream and as she doesn't live far, she rode it to us. I imagine she was quite the sight!


So pretty!




This was taken in our formerly treeless yard. The huge pine behind me is our neighbor's. Thankfully they have some evergreens back there. It's amazing to think that our front yard went from some overgrown shrubs in desperate need of a trim, to two flower gardens and our back yard used to have cars, a dilapitated shed, a satelite dish and stand, a huge sandy pit, a big section of cements blocks all moved! Instead we've got garden space and trees. So nice. Our lawn needs some TLC, so maybe I should do some of that before the season is all done. LOVE LOVE LOVE enjoying summers outdoors! I asked Brian if it was a fair trade off to have to endure the winters and he made the point that winters are harder to deal with than hot summers. This is very true- but I also see winters as adventures- maybe that will come for him with time??