Landscaping
Now that work on the house is reaching the little nitpicking details stage, we have turned our attentions outward to the landscaping. The property was originally maintained by a staff of gardeners; oh to live in such a time! Now we are fortunate to have a part-time gardener who will maintain the yard and flower beds during the growing season.
The southwest corner of the house will eventually get planted with annuals and cutting flowers. We are also gradually removing the too-large hemlock trees, and are replacing them with lower hedges. This was the original landscaping plan, but the hemlocks went untended since the 1960s and they grew beyond the neatly-pruned hedgerow they were intended to be.
On the other side of the house are two stately old Magnolia trees. The one on the right is as old as the house; the one on the left about half that. The grass beneath the trees was bare and unmowable, so we created a mulched sitting area. On warm summer evenings, this is the spot to be to watch fireflies.
In the Buddhist tradition, we have also added a collection of wind chimes in the area under the magnolias. This was inspired by a visit to a local Buddhist temple, where the trees seemed to sing with all the tiny chimes hanging from them. These chimes are deeper and richer and sound like far-away church bells.
I guess you could call this the back yard. It shows the back of the carriage house on the left, with the bay window for Bob's office, and the view to the west.
This picture was taken when power still came to the house via an overhead
feed. When the development was built, our power was moved underground and the
pole was removed. Now we have a back yard roughly the size of a regulation
soccer field!
Next Stop: the Pond