GREEN (Grass, Trees, And Herons)!

After a very rainy April (which I didn't mind!), May has sprung, bright and GREEN!

The grass didn't have to be replanted or anything (unlike in the Phoenix metro, where grass was resown twice per year and it still was mostly brown!), and it is growing lush and verdant.

The view from our windows is incredible.  When I look up from whatever I'm doing and see TREES and GRASS and a POND out the windows, I'm shocked and amazed all over again.

This view is even better since our new dining room chairs arrived and were assembled by my wonderful Gregory!  We had some almost exactly like this when I was growing up!  I love the cane back and the blue "performance velvet" seat.

Some assembled:

Great job, Greg!

 

All chairs assembled!

From the other direction, facing the front door:

We have enjoyed being able to be outside and not being swelteringly hot.  We're used to the temperature being at least 30 degrees hotter than it is here right now, and knowing that it's NOT going to reach 115 here and we don't have to go through that anymore is a huge joy to me!

There were some spots on the lawn that were burned from dog stuff, so I planted a special patch grass seed and watered it lots.

It's growing!

We discovered that the hose hookup had a leak, so Greg replaced the inner seal and now it works with no leaking!

Greg found the screens in the closet under the stairs and installed them so we can open the windows!  Of course, a week or so later, the allergies kicked in to make poor Greg sneeze and wheeze, so we don't open the windows much at the moment.

We have continued unboxing things.  I found this beautiful painting that was in my family's house ever since I can remember, and finally put it where it belongs - over the fireplace!  I love it there and it's a gorgeous artwork.

The cats continue to be HAPPY and relaxed in their new home.

One tree leafed out, two trees working on it!

I'm working on getting our artworks organized so that they are sitting where I think they would look good hung up.  I'm just getting used to them in their potential locations.  It's fun!

I used to have these two artworks in separate rooms (the birds in our main bathroom, the abstract in my office), but they look wonderful together and I think I will hang them on top of each other (the smaller above) to emphasize the height of the ceilings in the entryway.

We have seen some incredible wildlife right out our windows!

Great white egret:

Hostas bouncing back from winter:

Green heron:

Yellow warbler?  Passing through

Photo by our neighbor LeAnn:

We took a walk and found a wooden bridge across a marshy area to a park!

Fireworks!

Little deer antlers:

Moon rising behind the crabapple blossoms:

One Saturday we saw these little goslings in the backyard!!!!

And then SANDHILL CRANES walked into the yard, yelling their rattly noise!

AND THEN AN OTTER CAME TO THE POND!!!!!

A cute little pansy? Johnny-junp-up?

Our front flower bed is beautiful!  I have cleaned out the dead stuff and pulled weeds a number of times.  The hostas are even more lush and lovely now.

And I can't get enough of this crabapple tree (though it's a bit stinky!)

And we've had Weather!!!

We went into hiding in the basement bathroom with all the cats one Wednesday when our sirens were going off.  It was scary!  But we were just fine and no tornado came.

I stopped by the Town Hall to pick up our free composting kit.  It's adorable!

We're happy to have organics compost bins in a couple of places very close to us.

Here's the cute little bin!

I got to go to our nieces' school open day, which was delightful!  They did musical performances and then we got to walk around and look at some of their art.

I liked my cute dress with this black denim jacket.

I love my family!

(That's my sister-in-law's Mom on the far left.)

Lots is happening around here, so there's lots more to share.

See you in the next post!

Our crabapple tree in the rain with bonus frogs: