Here I go again. Lots of work to do on the garden and the house. Some pictures to show what I have to work with.
First a blurry picture of the jay that comes to the yard. He is perched on the little shed.
Whoops he is in the wisteria.
This message was edited Jan 22, 2012 3:39 PM
The new little house. Built in 1942. Probably for the sailors during WWII and all the people who worked in the shipyard.
Further to the right. Extremely large silver maple tree that I think was made into a stump and allowed to regrow.
And to the left side. Camelia in the front yard and a pink dogwood further down the side.
Again on the left side. A large rhodie, a red maple that is a brother to the one I had at Alderbrook.
The picture above also sort of shows the flower bed all the way down the left side to a HUGH Laurel in the back corner. There are golden chain trees, quince, phlox, roses, epimedium, blackberries ugh, a yew that is about eight feet high, lilies and lots of weeds. The rhodie used to be about 12 feet high but some renters cut it down. I think it is Flora pleno. It is more purple and blooms consistantly and bountifully. I had one at Alderbrook also.
This message was edited Jan 22, 2012 4:11 PM
This is the Laurel that is eating Kitsap County and will be cut way back or eliminated entirely. Not sure yet.
This is across the back fence. Love that fence. An apple tree with horrible apples. An osier red twig dogwood and the wisteria that is eating Bremerton. It has huge long flowers and is just covered with bloom every year. It will be pruned. The little shed was built by DH and I for my DD about twenty years ago. Not big enough for all my stuff but still in pretty good shape. Need paint.
The back door and small deck. Faces due south. Lots of sun in the back yard. With the dining room window and the kitchen window.
Backyard out ot the front. White lilac on this corner and the far one also. A small bed under the far lilac.
A territorial view to the northwest. This will be all for today. These pictures were all taken last summer while we were moving in. I have some of the inside and then some newer ones for later.
Willow that house is great. I absolutely love the blue porch. You are going to have such fun gardening there, I bet you are off now drooling on some catalogs! I just did what it said in a garden design book- I printed an 8 1/2 x 11" photo of the front of my house, and got tracing paper and colored pencils, to try to visualize what to do when I rip out the ivy and climbing hydrangia. Should be fun. It's amazing how difficult I find the decisions now. When I was a renter I was perfectly satisfied with "whatever", now I seem to agonize over the smallest thing. I just wasted an hour trying to decide about what style curtain rods to get. Keep us posted on your place.
Willow, what a great house and yard, with plenty of space and sun for gardening in! I love the lilacs. I bet that smells fabulous in the springtime. I look forward to seeing the transformation into a beautiful place as you add gardens and make it your own with your incredible creative touch. How is your family doing?
Willow, that is adorable! So this is a house you used to live in? Have you had any trouble adjusting to being in a more populated area?
Love the new house. So much room to develop a new garden. Can't wait to see the transformation take place.
Willow,
What a great house and garden. Love the shed. Thank you for sharing on a cold and gray day. Looking forward to more.
So fun. I should look at my own place as a "new" project and wonder what I might come up with.
It's beautiful. I can imagine a full cottage garden with the white picket fencing and the beds going up the driveway. It's nice that there are some mature trees and shrubs to work with. Most importantly, how's the soil?
Hello everyone. The soil here is fantastic. Years ago the people who lived here had a large garden and they must have done good stuff to the soil.
I'm having no trouble adjusting to living in town. Our near neighbors are a young couple with twosmall children. They are very nice and he is a fireman. Their boy Justin is my buddy. They have a boxer named Dozer. Very well behaved but I think he thinks my toy poodles are rabbits.
My daughter owns this house and she lived here for 13 years before she bought a bigger one. It was rented for about 6 months and then has set vacant for 5 or 6 years. So I feel at home here. We did a lot to the inside. New kitchen and bath and lots of paint.
Here are some inside pictures. From the front door over to the dining room. Not very far.
Corner of the living room. These were taken while we were moving in, so we were like camping out.
Close-up of the dining room.
One side of the kitchen. We have real lath and plaster and real oak floors.
The other side.
The 'large' bedroom which I use as an office and DH uses it for a dressing room and it is also a TV room.
The little bedroom where we sleep. We got a double-decker bed for the dogs so they both sleep at bed level on my side but not on the bed. That helps. The cat still sleeps on the bed.
And these are our new twin great-grand daughters with their grandfather, our son Patrick.
And with our granddaughter. The girls are named Bailey and Tenley.
And four generations, plus Mindy in her sailor tee.
This message was edited Jan 23, 2012 3:35 PM
And moi just lovin 'em
Here's a better picture of the jay. See his coloring? I've never seen one of these before.
This message was edited Jan 23, 2012 3:42 PM
Your house is wonderful!! Lots of nice sunny windows and a white Kitchen. I have one too just love the white! The girls are adorable and a hand full i'll bet.
The Jay looks to have a white breast. Never seen one like that either.
Willow, it that a 'real' blue jay rather than our local stellar jay? I've never seen one around here either. I call our guys blue jays anyway, they are so very blue how can it be wrong?
Nice tour of your new house and garden - reinforces my intention to get serious about ditching my Dad's extra belongings and my own as well.
Thanks for sharing your new world, Willow. You have a wonderful start in all of it and we will look forward to seeing you make it even more your own.
(I believe your jay is actually a Western scrub-jay. They don't always get this far north.)
Thanks for your comments and the ID on the jay. There are two of them so I hope they nest around here. I also bought some birdseed and suet to help keep them around. I wasn't going to feed the birds here but I sure have a lot of them
Some pictures taken around the yard lately. The pink dogwood with hellebore and the epimedium in the background. This is the long bed that goes all along the wall. It is on the east side of the yard.
This message was edited Jan 25, 2012 11:38 AM
Another picture of the Laurel in the southeast corner. And a skinny little cedar. I gave this to my daughter years ago. It either grows very slowly or it's having trouble.
This message was edited Jan 25, 2012 11:42 AM
This different cedar was about a foot tall when I found it growing in Union on the golf course and we planted it here. It's doing very well.
This will all be flowerbed again one day.
As well as this spot. It has one peony and some hen n chicks that servived.
