This is our bluebird house that currently has little babies inside. A man at my church made this for me. Bluebirds make nests and lay eggs twice a year. The plant growing along side it is another favorite thing. It is a clematis. Paul has sprayed it with roundup and has "weed-eated" it and caused a lot of damage to it, but it eventually grows back. :)
This is a big oak tree in the front yard, on the corner. It provides a lot of shade and has a great canopy. Abbie and I love to spread a blanket under it in the summer. We have picnics here.
This is a decorative rock. We bought this rock and the silly thing was not cheap. It was part of our landscaping package design that we bought a few years back. Abbie loves to sit on it and it has a nice green patina of algae.
A view of our neighborhood when we go for a walk. Walking around the neighborhood is one of my favorite things. This area represents the forested part of our neighborhood. This is also the beginning of
Lamplight Way. Remember, I mentioned once that we have named different sections of our neighborhood. Many of the houses in this area have lamps at the end of their driveways or sidewalks. It is nice to walk through here after dark. Just around the bend (up ahead, bearing to the right) is
The Poison Ivy Forest.
In this picture, there is a buckeye tree. In the fall, I'll try to remember to post of picture of an actual buckeye - the thing Abbie enjoys collecting (me too)! This tree is at a neighbor's house, but they have given us permission to pick up the buckeyes especially since they get in their way when they mow.
The hilly, woods in the background - one of my favorite things about living in Tennessee, about living outside the city limits, and about the views I have when we take a walk. During our walk, we usually walk to the end of this road which ends at a farm (Keeland Farm, hence the name of our neighborhood - Keeland Heights). At the end of the road, there is a field of cows. We stop and moo at them if they are close to the fence. The house to the right is the one the former owners built after they sold us this one.
The top and bottom picture is two different views of
Ghost Hollow. When you walk through this area, there is a very noticeable difference in temperature - much cooler than any other area on our walk. There is a bit of a valley or depression which funnels colder air across the road, but I like the idea that the cold is caused by ghosts. Maybe many civil war soldiers died here?
This view is looking down on
Ghost Hollow.
I love getting pedicures. This counts as a favorite thing outside since I am outside! I do not know why I have such a large space between my big toe and the one beside it. But I can live with it. :)
Laying on the ground, looking up through the canopy of that oak tree in the front yard.
Abbie's playground that Paul built. We redid it this year by laying railroad ties around the perimeter (and enlarging the perimeter) and changing the mulch inside to playground chips. But we can't take credit for the work - we paid our landscaper to do it.
Bumblebees! Can you see this one that is out of focus? He is small and cute and fuzzy. Abbie loves for Paul to tell her about the time he got stung when he tried to pet a fuzzy bumblebee. Last year, we had NO bumblebees at our house. NONE! I think that is terrible. This is the first one I've seen this year. Once my lamb's ear starts blooming, I hope to see many, many bumblebees because they love that plant's blooms. I hope the experts figure out what is happening to our bees. Truthfully, I don't like bees. The first time I ever got stung (by a plain honeybee), I was home during the summer and both parents were at work (I have issues with being a latchkey kid - maybe someday I'll tell the weird things I did and felt from being left alone while my parents worked). The sting was very painful, and I didn't know what to do. Another time, I was in the woods with some relatives and they accidentally stirred up a nest of yellow jackets. I didn't get stung, but as I was running, I got several bees caught in my hair. That noise and knowing they were tangled in my hair sort of fried my nerves. You can ask Paul - if a bee flies near my face, you'll see me overreact. I know better, but that is what I do. Now that we have Abbie, I am doing much better at controlling my fear because I don't want her to learn this bad habit from me. One thing I have learned and that we are constantly reminding Abbie is that bees like flowers, not people. If we don't bother them, they won't bother us. I'm totally cool when they are on flowers. The problems begin when they come whizzing past my face unexpectedly. :(
The robin's nest over our front door. There are 3 babies. My dad recently told me that robins always lay 4 eggs (I'll have to research that). This baby is listening to both its parents who are out in the yard giving flying instructions. He says, "not today, dad, not today."
The big oak tree in the backyard. Abbie likes to poke around the mulch underneath it. We have a squirrel feeder hanging in this tree. Unfortunately, this tree is very close to the property line with our neighbor so a lot of these leaves blow into his yard in the fall.
The upside down tomato planter that my niece made for me. Too bad that the neighbors have to look at it in an empty litter container.
Bluebirds - can you see her? She has a nest in a house in our backyard.
This is our bluebird house that currently has little babies inside. A man at my church made this for me. Bluebirds make nests and lay eggs twice a year. The plant growing along side it is another favorite thing. It is a clematis. Paul has sprayed it with roundup and has "weed-eated" it and caused a lot of damage to it, but it eventually grows back. :)
This is a big oak tree in the front yard, on the corner. It provides a lot of shade and has a great canopy. Abbie and I love to spread a blanket under it in the summer. We have picnics here.
This is a decorative rock. We bought this rock and the silly thing was not cheap. It was part of our landscaping package design that we bought a few years back. Abbie loves to sit on it and it has a nice green patina of algae.
A view of our neighborhood when we go for a walk. Walking around the neighborhood is one of my favorite things. This area represents the forested part of our neighborhood. This is also the beginning of Lamplight Way. Remember, I mentioned once that we have named different sections of our neighborhood. Many of the houses in this area have lamps at the end of their driveways or sidewalks. It is nice to walk through here after dark. Just around the bend (up ahead, bearing to the right) is The Poison Ivy Forest.
In this picture, there is a buckeye tree. In the fall, I'll try to remember to post of picture of an actual buckeye - the thing Abbie enjoys collecting (me too)! This tree is at a neighbor's house, but they have given us permission to pick up the buckeyes especially since they get in their way when they mow.
The hilly, woods in the background - one of my favorite things about living in Tennessee, about living outside the city limits, and about the views I have when we take a walk. During our walk, we usually walk to the end of this road which ends at a farm (Keeland Farm, hence the name of our neighborhood - Keeland Heights). At the end of the road, there is a field of cows. We stop and moo at them if they are close to the fence. The house to the right is the one the former owners built after they sold us this one.
The top and bottom picture is two different views of Ghost Hollow. When you walk through this area, there is a very noticeable difference in temperature - much cooler than any other area on our walk. There is a bit of a valley or depression which funnels colder air across the road, but I like the idea that the cold is caused by ghosts. Maybe many civil war soldiers died here?
This view is looking down on Ghost Hollow.
I love getting pedicures. This counts as a favorite thing outside since I am outside! I do not know why I have such a large space between my big toe and the one beside it. But I can live with it. :)
Laying on the ground, looking up through the canopy of that oak tree in the front yard.
Abbie's playground that Paul built. We redid it this year by laying railroad ties around the perimeter (and enlarging the perimeter) and changing the mulch inside to playground chips. But we can't take credit for the work - we paid our landscaper to do it.
Bumblebees! Can you see this one that is out of focus? He is small and cute and fuzzy. Abbie loves for Paul to tell her about the time he got stung when he tried to pet a fuzzy bumblebee. Last year, we had NO bumblebees at our house. NONE! I think that is terrible. This is the first one I've seen this year. Once my lamb's ear starts blooming, I hope to see many, many bumblebees because they love that plant's blooms. I hope the experts figure out what is happening to our bees. Truthfully, I don't like bees. The first time I ever got stung (by a plain honeybee), I was home during the summer and both parents were at work (I have issues with being a latchkey kid - maybe someday I'll tell the weird things I did and felt from being left alone while my parents worked). The sting was very painful, and I didn't know what to do. Another time, I was in the woods with some relatives and they accidentally stirred up a nest of yellow jackets. I didn't get stung, but as I was running, I got several bees caught in my hair. That noise and knowing they were tangled in my hair sort of fried my nerves. You can ask Paul - if a bee flies near my face, you'll see me overreact. I know better, but that is what I do. Now that we have Abbie, I am doing much better at controlling my fear because I don't want her to learn this bad habit from me. One thing I have learned and that we are constantly reminding Abbie is that bees like flowers, not people. If we don't bother them, they won't bother us. I'm totally cool when they are on flowers. The problems begin when they come whizzing past my face unexpectedly. :(
The robin's nest over our front door. There are 3 babies. My dad recently told me that robins always lay 4 eggs (I'll have to research that). This baby is listening to both its parents who are out in the yard giving flying instructions. He says, "not today, dad, not today."
The big oak tree in the backyard. Abbie likes to poke around the mulch underneath it. We have a squirrel feeder hanging in this tree. Unfortunately, this tree is very close to the property line with our neighbor so a lot of these leaves blow into his yard in the fall.
The upside down tomato planter that my niece made for me. Too bad that the neighbors have to look at it in an empty litter container.
Bluebirds - can you see her? She has a nest in a house in our backyard.
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