The Back Yard

Here is your Highness in all her glory as she watches over me working in the back yard. She never lends a helping hand but she sure is good company. And how could you not love her even if she can be a temperamental, cranky and crabby old lady. All those landscape ties you see there are brand spanking new. The old ones crumbled and the hill was coming crashing down so the park owners, after much prodding, decided they were going to do the work to fix it. So that's where we've been spending a lot of our time lately. We've been moving plants, pulling weeds, rearranging huge rocks, spreading dirt. I'm beginning to feel like a ground hog. It's too bad I didn't take a before picture of the jungle we had to deal with to post here so you could see the transformation that's taken place already. It's amazing and there still is lots to do trying to figure out what's a weed, what's a plant and where it should go. Phillis - where are you?

And this one is for you Barbara. A little to the right of the first picture, on top of the hill and facing right smack into our bedroom patio door is this gorgeous lilac bush. It's not the healthiest due to lack of water but makes an awesome separation between us and the neighbor that lives behind it. I sat out there on our little back patio last night, just below this lilac bush and thought about you Barbara. I remembered how you loved the lilacs we brought to your room when you came for the retreat in BC and the image of your smile and how ecstatic you were with this simple pleasure. It warmed my heart and made me feel close to you.