Around the Yard

One thing about moving in the Fall, is that you don’t really get to see what is going on in the yard until Springtime.  When we got here last November, it got cold soon after, and we were busy unpacking and getting settled and I actually didn’t walk around in the “wild” part of our yard until about March.

Finally, it has warmed up a little and we have been able to spend a little bit more time outside in the yard, and the more time we spend the more we can see that needs to be done.

Last Saturday, we spent lots of time weeding, and clearing out flower beds.  We moved a tree, chopped down some sage brush, placed our bees in their new area, and found a giant leak in one of the sprinklers.

There are lots of differences between the yard at our new house and the yard at our old house.  We had put in the time to plant grass, put in a patio, plant a garden, trees, and flowers, we had a fire pit, fences, and a deck that we loved.  The kids had a lot of grassy area to play in.

The new house has some great features.  It is a little larger than our old yard and a few of the trees are larger, so that is nice. 

There is plenty of grass for the kids to play on, and there is the wild part of our yard where they can climb and hide and explore.  There are a few nice shrubs and lots and lots of rocks. 

At our old house, all of the rocks were underground, and every time you had to dig a hole, you could plan on moving a large rock before you were done.  During the winter, small rocks seemed to bubble to the surface, and every spring, there would be new rocks to clear out of gardens and flower beds.  At the new house, the dirt is pretty nice, but the people who lived here before had several boulders placed in the landscaping.  This is a new thing for us and I am currently in the process of cleaning out winter stuff {dried leaves, weeds, etc.} and looking for good native plants that will grow in the rocks with lots of afternoon sun hitting them.

  I am also on the hunt for deer-resistant plants, as there are several deer that live in the dry creek by our home.

For now, though, I am enjoying all of the new plants that are popping up.  I’m not sure what most of them are-- most likely, they are horrible weeds, but I can’t wait to see what happens.

Yellow

Remember when we did a quick facebook poll to decide which color this lamp should be?

It finally got warm enough outside to spray paint it. 

I have a deep love for turquoise, so naturally, I painted it turquoise. 

{I was going to put a picture of the turquoise lamp here, but for some strange reason, I didn’t take a picture of it.  Weird, I know.}

But it wasn’t right.  It looked like it was trying to be a lamp from the early 90’s at a cheap hotel in Miami. 

I tossed around a kelly green or bright orange, but the lamp really wanted to be…yellow.

So I painted it yellow.

Perfect.

Yard Sale Season!

One reason that I love spring is because all of the yard sale signs start popping up again.  I went to my first good yard sale of the season today.  I found lots of great stuff {two springform pans, a nice leather bag, a lunchbox, a {working!}calculator, a large roll of alphabet stickers, a silver nativity, an alarm clock, a large picture frame and--Bella’s choice--a rocket} and walked up to the lady running the sale.

I said, “how much for this stuff?” I said.

She said “hmm…looks like you are at about $4.”

Now, I love a great deal just like the next girl, but I felt a little guilty only paying $4 for all of that.

So I said … “Are you sure?”

And she looked at me and said “This isn’t Dillards, you know, it’s a yard sale.”

Oh, how I love yard sales!