• Family,  gardening and landscape

    Our Backyard in Winter

    There are certain athletic pursuits I am comfortable saying aren’t for me given the high likelihood of falling and/or crashing into stationary objects. Yes, I’m speaking of sports that involve snow and ice and hurtling yourself down or across slippery surfaces at high rates of speed. That’s why I find it slightly ironic that I’m excited to share our winter ‘backyard’ with you. What looked like this in the summer… Now looks like this in the winter… That’s right! Our pond has frozen over. Also, we have neighbors! Who knew?!?! Before the grandparents start sending me messages about being careful about skating on our winter backyard, let me reassure you…

  • Family,  gardening and landscape

    The Best $16 I’ve Ever Spent

    I should have called this post “welcome to our backyard,” but I went the sensational route. That sometimes happens when I write late it was actually 9 p.m. at night. The home we rented for our arrival back in the U.S. has a cute cabin-y exterior. This is from the day we moved in… Fun, right? But my first impression was OH. NO. WAY. Truly. What the pictures don’t tell you is that the location of this home has some drawbacks due to its close proximity to a busy road and some commercial development. However, the backyard almost makes me forget all of those things and I can see why the owners…