Now I'm Finished

So now I am really finished with it. I painted the Buda. Never been much on spray painting but he turned out pretty good.

Our New Front Yard

After my first husband died and subsequently moving out of my big house in Riverview into a small apartment I finely bought my house in Strawberry Ridge in the Year of 2002. It was a pre-owned house so the landscaping that came with it was what I got. It was OK but the people who did my yard had once suggested I should pull out all that stuff and do something new. Well I really thought the old stuff looked OK to me so I resisted. That is UNTIL one day toward the last of March when Lee and I were in Kerby’s nursery looking around. I shall digress a bit here. Originally we had decided to DO NOTHING to our yard this year since we will be spending most of the summer away from it. But you know “Stuff invariably happens!” So we started out slow.

We bought a weeping bottle brush tree. Then a few annuals for our butterfly garden. BUT while at Kerby’s I happened to notice this really “cool” Coolie statue. He was standing in an area with a bunch of what I call Bonzi plants but I think they are more correctly called topiary shrubs. I couldn’t get this out of my mind. So on the way home I grabbed a napkin out of the console of our car and sketched out a Japanese Garden. I had seen one in Thailand and also in San Francisco and really liked the look. First thing I had to find was this palm that I liked. It was shaped like a palmetto but much larger fronds and they are silvery grey. I didn’t even know the name of it. Upon asking around I found two of them here in the park and asked the owners of each of them where they could be bought. One said Kerby’s who didn’t have any at the time but would have some in August. Perfect! We could do the garden when

we come home.The next person we talked to said theycould be found right up the road so off we went and bingo here was our palm. So we bought it. Then in Home Depot we found a silver Juniper tree. Boy this would fit right in. So we bought it. Then we talked to our neighbors John and Marlene about possibly doing the work for us. They had done their yard and another neighbor’s yard and did a beautiful job so we contracted with them. So off we went to buy the topiary. The big search was the bridge we wanted. We looked everywhere called everywhere and looked online. Finely we found just what we wanted at a cement statuary place in Largo. Only problem the bridge weighed 250 pounds. I called Jamie to see if he could round up some help to unload this thing from John’s truck which he could. So Tuesday Lee & I, John & Marlene took off for Largo to get the bridge. Monday, Lee and I had gone to Kerby’s and bought the Coolie and the Pagoda. At the cement place we also found the cutest little Buda (or Hoi Toi the cement place calls him.) Yesterday was the big day. The last details were set in place. John and Marlene took my dream and turned it into reality and it is just lovely. Thanks John and Marlene and thanks Jamie and Doug for the muscle power. They also unloaded the Coolie from our car. He also weighs some 200+ pounds.

See My Facebook page for more photos.

The Florida Gator

What a beautiful morning it is after a rainy stormy day yesterday. We were lazy yesterday it just seemed like a good day to stay in and stay dry. So I got up this morning and decided to go to the workout center and do a little walking and biking. Been trying to do a bit of it lately. Back home looking at all my new plants I noticed several golf carts in front of the neighbors house. Teresa and Kathy from the office were out so I shouted a cheerful good morning to them. They replied then told me they caught the "Gator" in the pond in our back yard. I ran into the house and grabbed my camera and headed for the pond. Sure enough there the maintenance men had a gator I would judge to be about 4 to 4.5 feet long. Just a little guy. They will call the trappers to come get him and take him away. But here is his (or her) picture. There is still a large one in the pond but I haven't seen him/her. Seems to be a never ending thing in that pond. Always gators gators gators. This is the first one I have actually seen but the neighbors have seen them several times. Once while we were away for the day they people who did our yard told us a gator walked right through our carport. Another time, while we were away for the day our neighbor left a note on our door and told us a 7 foot gator had been walking through our back yard. Oh well just another day in Florida. Soon we will be up in Alaska where we will have to worry about bears.