OUR GARDEN'S PROGRESSION

It was scary...I hate change. I don't know why, but it frightens me. I thrive on familiarity and rituals and tradition. And, yet those dang, huge cedar shrubs in the front of our home were blocking the sun and the view and ...heck, they were a menace and a sight for sore eyes.  With a sour taste in my mouth, I recall  the last time my hubby, Ron, decided to cut down the huge pillar cedar beside our house. It was on the day of Nana's funeral a day when I was already filled with all kinds of nostalgia and remorse. Poof, it was gone and nothing could bring it back, just like my Nana, the beloved matriarch of our family. He was "just trying to keep out of the way, stay busy, and thought it would help the house if he removed it" and after thinking long and hard about it, and having several stormy quarrels, maybe even he was suffering a bit of his own feelings. Anyway, many years passed and these shrubs were getting ridiculous so I approached him on the subject and being a man who LOVES to putz, he readily agreed before "I changed my mind". Here is the "PROGRESSION" as I like to call it. Needless to say, I am happy with the results:

Ok, I could deal with this..I mean, I had great imagination and we were both happy about the improved view from our porch and excited about landscaping with flowers and rocks. It was gonna be a fun project after all!
I went to visit my sister in DC shortly after with visions of flowers dancing in my head. Ron stayed home with his "own visions'..lol! As soon as I arrived home, he proudly grabbed my hand and lead me to see his "fence".  OMG!!! ( Now this is a secret so please, shhhh!)When I first saw it, I almost fainted...he had pulled every lawn ornament he could find and stuck it in it making the whole thing look tacky and downright goofy( I know, I should have snapped a photo) And, to make matters worse, he had dragged cedar and driftwood home from his fishing spots and arranged a little fence. He was so proud of it, he could barely contain himself. Hmmm, It wasn't what I had planned or even remotely what I had envisioned. I mean, here we have this huge rather traditional home, one that perhaps would have done better having just  the flat rocks as a border...and how in heck was I gonna get down and weed (I had finally gotten a kneeler for mom's day so I could actually make it to the ground and back)? How would I be able to stop over this rickety fence? Ayaaaaaaiii, I screamed to myself as I put on my happy, proud and excited face for Ron! Later that night, I expressed my thoughts to my mom and sister and they assured me, It would be ok and to take some of the riff-raff out slowly and make it more soothing to my eyes gradually so he wouldn't know. That night, I did just that with the aid of my sis. We moved stuff and made it better...well, except for that fence. That, I knew HAD to stay so I may as well make the best of it. He was so PROUD and everyone that walked by remarked on his hard work and so, here it is...and actually now that my flowers cover the inside, it's not so bad! Thank you, Ron. I love you so!!! (maybe next year, I can get rid of the fence) LOL

Starting some from seed:

Patches, our next-door neighbor's cat claiming his resting spot..we put a sign there called "Patch's Patch". he knows it's his place of peace.

More progression:

  Flowers looking pretty good for Jason, Mel & Jaydon's visit...so happy they're here! Here we are  with Jaydon (age four) at my mom's with the view of the Salmon River behind us.

  Jaydon was happy to see we had his stone in our garden  that he made for us at around two. Although he was sad that his foot was much bigger.." I don't wanna grow bigger!"..Haha..so cute!!!

June 20, 2012-Looking pretty good & filling in nicely..... Maybe the fence ain't so bad. ;)

My "Michael" patch. MJ fans now what i mean...He LOVED sunflowers and so do I!

Now I wait for my favorite flower of all..The "Heavenly Blue" Morning Glory...I am attempting to have it climb the front porch...we'll see....again...Stay tuned....