the Yard...

Kelly is hosting Show Us Where You Live on Fridays and since I have a yard and I have pictures of the yard, I thought I'd share.

First, I must confess that the condition of the yard and all the things surrounding the yard are not the fruit of my labor. My husband has the green thumb in the family and can get just about anything to grow. His heart's desire is to have a tropical garden year round. Except that we do not live in a tropical climate. (Remember this?) I do choose the tomatoes and the herbs (notice I said "choose", not "care for?") Anyway, welcome to my yard.

This is a partial view coming up the sidewalk to the front door. We have calla lilies blooming on the porch and a little bamboo water fountain thing sitting next to the steps.

You never know what you'll find in growing/blooming in our yard. There are several lilies,
a couple of citrus trees, including orange, lime, and lemon. (good news! we may have three lemons for the annual "gathering of the lemon" this year!),

sixteen to eighteen plumeria (don't forget, we do not live in a tropical climate. What goes out must come in.),

various herbs such as basil, rosemary, lavender and thyme,

the beautiful dinner plate hibiscus (we had a pink one and a white one and somehow ended up with a multi colored one as well.),

two little ponds, complete with goldfish, water hyacinths and water lilies (and a frog named Trevor that stowed away in the house one winter),

daffodils in the spring,

Mabel, the aristocrat pear (he was a welcome home after surgery present that I insisted was a boy named Mabel in my post-operative medicated state),

and of course no tour of our home would be complete without a picture of our loyal basset hound, Elwood. I'm fairly sure he's plotting the fall of civilization while resting underneath Mabel's branches.

Where basset hounds rule the roost...

Kelly is hosting Show Us Where You Live and this week's theme is the Master Bedroom. You'll notice that my pictures come complete with "the master." He is currently laying in his favorite position on my side of the bed. Truthfully, I think he wonders why I keep trying to sleep on his side of the bed. If I have to get up for anything, when I come back there will be a basset hound snoring (drooling) on my pillows. (Have you ever tried to move a limp 50 pound basset hound in the middle of the night? Trust me, it doesn't work so well. It might be easier for me to sleep on the floor.)

And yes, that is little brother at the foot of the bed. He's one of my favorite Disney characters and someone found him for me for Mother's Day. Fortunately he does not have a squeaker inside or the dogs would have disemboweled him a long time ago.

I think I'll leave you with a picture of basset hound heaven. Thanks for dropping by.

This is it...

Kelly is hosting Show Us Where You Live Fridays and this weeks theme is the living room. Since the living room was mostly clean at the time these pictures were taken, I thought I'd share. (You'll notice there aren't a lot of shots of the floor. That's because a certain African grey can't seem to quit throwing corn and sunflower seeds on it. The dogs don't mind, though.) Anyway, here's the view of the um...couch. And the living room is mostly plant free at the moment. That's because plant liberation day occurred a week or so ago.

Honestly, most of the time this is the scene in the living room. Except you can add a few more dogs to the picture. I'm not sure where Wolfgang and the two small weebeasties were but you can bet that if the Dynamic Duo sent out the bark signal, they'd all be dashing to the window to see what was going on.
The tv is Josh's toy. That's not to say that I don't watch tv, I just don't care what I watch it on as long as it's in color and is big enough that I don't need reading glasses to see it. However, being a guy, Josh appreciates electronics. Which apparently includes bigger televisions. And surround sound.
This would be the top of the DVD cabinet. I have a collection of Charming Tails that I have been switching out seasonally (so that everyone has a chance to play outside the curio cabinet.) It also has one of my favorite pictures of Jessi and if you could see the multi picture frame, you would see Jonathan asleep on a box. Because that's what little boys do. Sleep in boxes. Or laundry baskets. Or maybe that's just Jonathan. And I can't forget my beloved pumpkin spice Yankee Candle. (because it reminds me of pie. And we all know how I feel about pie.)
Oh, look. The dog is in the chair. Imagine that. I guess the funniest thing is when Josh tries to sit in their chair and watch tv. Sometimes I'll come in the room and there he'll be with three dogs laying on top of him. (and two of them are not Yorkies.) Hmmm...if you're going to sit in their chair, I guess you'd better learn to share.
Well, thanks for visiting my living room. Be sure and check out the other rooms over at Kelly's. And if I can get my house cleaned up, we might play this game again next week!