Heaven on Earth

You have been dying to see Russ and Raquel's new yard right?  It's so beautiful.  (By the way, do you guys use google chrome.  It's so much faster.  It usually takes me all day to blog this many pictures and I got this done in an hour.)  Back to the yard......  The grassy area this side of the flower garden is directly in front of the house and the grassy area on the other side with the irrigation pipes goes clear to the road.  The irrigation pipes are temporary until Russ gets the drip line connected.  The drip line is all under the grass and ready to use, but just not connected to the pipes yet.  Raquel planted all the flower garden with the help of a few friends from Church.

This is a view from the driveway, showing the front yard, and the walkway.  Where those two trees are is a pathway from the front yard to the big lawn area.   The grassy area right in front of the camera will have a water feature at some point.

Picture taken from porch.  You can see the trunk of the big oak tree in the front yard surrounded by river rock.  The front porch has been extended and a new walkway formed that goes out to the driveway.  Lee coved the porch and walkway with big stones.  

Another view from the porch.  You can see the extension better from here.

Another great view from the front porch

This little patio area is in front of the front door on the right.  This is a new patio area that wasn't there before.  Raquel did 80% of the work on this.  The stones are set in sand.  She wheelbarrowed the sand in and raked it all level.   Then set the stones, leveling as she went, then filled it in with more sand mixed with cement.  That bush on the right is really a climber that is laying on the patio so the painters could paint the wall under it.  It needs to be reattached to the wall.  Can you tell that the wall is a mossy gray.  The house was repainted this week also.

Raquel and the boys linded the trampoline hole with paving stones.   They had to chisel the hole out and level the paving stones.  It was a lot harder than it looks.  All this yard work has been done in the last month.  Including seeding the lawns.  The little yard in front of the house was sod, but the big lawn was seeded.   This has been an all consuming project for Raquel and her family.  And I feared it would send her to an early grave.  But now that it is done,  I think the stress and exhaustion will lift from her mighty shoulders.  Until the next projet.............

This is mine and Kim's garden.  A few roses and some Tomatoes.   So simple.  

So beautiful and so yummy

My climbing rose

From my garden

I didn't grow these eggs.  Really, I didn't.  but I took the picture because I think they are so unique.  I buy my eggs from a local farmer and he got some new hens who seem to produce wonderful double yoked eggs.  I love them.    There were five in my last purchase.  That crazy hen, I think she is an overachiever.