Let's Step Outside

The first thing I do each morning is open the kitchen door and let Otis outside to go potty. Milo sleeps in later than his brother. 

And this is what I see, only it is of course a morning view, not a sunset view. Our neighbor's pond. Right next door, geese and ducks sailing. 

I'm in heaven. I've been in love with this view since our son sent the following picture of our granddaughters visiting our new home--remember, they came and blessed the house before we even moved in.

See what I mean? 

All day long, whenever I open my kitchen door, I see this pond.

From morning to sunset.

Here's the kitchen porch.

Want to bet that I haven't spent hours on Pinterest trying to get ideas for this?

Ideas to compensate for the fact that it also has to be home to RH's grills?
He's already claimed it.

Otis has claimed it too. And that blue has got to be painted out.

I know the chain link fence is ugly but I sent a multitude of praises to heaven when I saw it....a safe place for my dear little boys right outside the door! 

Here's the listing photo that shows how large Otis and Milo's new play space is:

Here's one corner of it they run to first. It has a sweet gum tree in it and a little green rabbit that I think will hop inside and appear on the table for Easter.

The house behind us in the upper right corner is our neighbor the pond belongs to. The nice neighbor who brought us a pecan pie to welcome us.

Here's a real oddity. See these rocks?

They have holes in them and they edge nine beds! And there's a stack of them in the barn.

I was like, "What were they thinking?" But you know what? They've grown on me. They kind of suit the yard and 1935 house. It was the farmhouse for all the land around us once upon a time.

These rocks edge the trees inside the dog pen too. 

And the wire fencing is around all the trees in the pen too. Maybe because this was home to five basset hounds? That's got to go.

But lest you think all these foundation plants are going to be ripped out too, 

forgetaboutit. We're not spring chickens, folks. And we're going to be focusing our efforts on adding to, not taking away. And I'm going to hide the pruning shears.

This big maple is another thing I fell in love with before moving here, shown here in the listing photo:

Here it is now and I can't wait to see it put on its green dress as we had three sugar maples at our old house that were my beloved green umbrella. To find this one here was a gift.

And we have one boxwood! I've always wanted boxwood!

The final picture is of a smoketree in the front yard.

So that's it, lots of potential, but we have a low budget. My blog friend Tara says: "Regardless of your bank account, you have a brain. Figure it out."

Do you know Tara Dillard? Oh you should! I have a notebook full of ideas from reading her posts and a basket full of pages I've printed out. 

If Tara ever comes to speak in Nashville I'm going to be front row center.

For those of you who asked to see pictures of our yard I hope you enjoyed it. I love this place and look forward to each season here. Any and all ideas you have would be appreciated. Flower Lady Lorraine, sure wish I could get even one rose bush here to thrive as yours do!