Landscaping

I think that I've bragged enough for you to know how much I truly love our new home.  This is the quietest, prettiest, most established neighborhood that we've ever lived in and my heart sings every time I drive through it.  The houses are cute.  The neighbors are friendly (and normal, which is something of a novelty for us).  In every direction, I feel as if I could stretch my arm out and touch the mountains.  Sincerely, I just love it here.  Concord is definitely the place I love most in Northern California.  Even after flying in the other night, I felt myself really relax when I saw the "Walnut Creek/ Concord" sign from the highway.  

My own little house is landscaped in such a way that I seem to be surprised by something blooming every day.  When we moved in I thought that most things were dead, but at the advice of my favorite farmer Siet, I decided to hold off on plucking too many dead plants from the ground.  Now, what was brown and dead is alive and thriving.  

Most of our front yard is landscaped in rose bushes.  Please, if anyone knows how to care for and shape these, let me in on the secret.  Overnight they have become a little unruly!  

Look at this beautiful bouquet that I made for my table this morning!  

I used an assortment of flowers, including roses, daisies, tiger lilies and even lavender.  

I love the fact that Lila was able to go outside this morning, pick an orange from our tree and eat it.  Previously they were pretty sour and the first batch of juice I made was a disaster!  But, here we are in midApril and the orange are sweet as candy. 

This is the orange tree!  I don't know how tall it is.  My guess is 30 feet, but I'm terrible at discerning size.  We have this giant pole with a claw on the end that helps us reach and pick the oranges, otherwise we couldn't  reach any of them.  That said, it's pretty light and even the kids are able to manage it.  

Here's a little bit of the landscaping in our front yard!  It seems crazy to think that any of this seemed dead just a few weeks ago!

Our trellis has been rebuilt!  We are renting this house and the owner of it makes us never want to buy!  He has been a dream!!!!  We mentioned that we were thinking of having the trellis fixed and before we could blink he had someone here taring it down and building a better one.   I imagine hanging many beautiful baskets of plants out here this summer.  I'm actually sitting under it as I write this. The weather here is beautiful today!

I'm really excited to create a backyard oasis for the kids.  I'd really like to give them some sort of playhouse and a little pool too.  Nothing huge!  Just a way to pass the time on a summer evening . We have a pretty great outdoor fireplace and I imagine setting up a canopy close by with a chaise lounge, comfortable chair and coffee table beneath it.  I imagine Jay and I sitting outside, chit chatting in front of the fire with a bottle of wine on a summer night.  I imagine us grilling our meals and just spending 75% of our time outdoors.  Summer, where are you?  

I have said it before... but I love it here so much.