Outside of Green Gables

Today since we are once again working on the house (a project that goes on and on and on), I thought I would write about our little abode. Dad is coming to work on the yard since both Gil and I seem to be really lacking in the green thumb area, so I'll write about the outside of our home. When you drive in it is a pretty little house with blue grey siding and a blueish garage door and front door, (of course right away there is an issue because it's not green but you can't have everything), but how I fell in love with the house was Marigold. Marigold is the beautiful poplar tree in the very front of the yard, We were looking in the fall and so when Gil drove up Marigold was in her golden splendor showering the lawn with her golden tresses, and I fell in love. The house could have been a pit after that I still would have loved it, foligage is the seller for a dreamer like me, so I was sold. So next lurking behind Marigold, is a beautiful grey-blue spruce that stands majestically in the yard guarding us from all intruders, this is Cordelia.

Alas poor Cordelia's skirts keep getting trimmed back by an overzealous gardner named Gilbert Blythe, who doesn't believe me when I say he needs to stop, luckily Jess convinced him too stop or poor Cordelia would have no skirts left and be left her stick legs hanging out. At her feet sit some bushes and in the spring tiger-lilies and blue bells spring up, to hear her stories from the dark winter that just past, while they were sleeping. Cordelia also guards the walk-way made of inlaid grey, blue and pink brick that leads up to the house.

Then there is a little garden cleft which most likely at one time held a beautiful garden planted by someone else who obviously knew what they were doing, (unlike us), it houses many beautiful plants none of which names I know. Over the past few years it has become weedy because of lack of care and understanding, but we are trying to make amends and tame it back. It is located in the shade right beside the garage. The very first bush in it is Blythe, who showers us with itsy bitsy white flowers in the spring and then turns a nice green and grows out till fall. Blythe can get quite out of control and stab passerbyers in the winter with his branches if he is not kept in line and aware of his boundries, yet he is one of my favorites.

The brick path that leads to our front door, winds around to make a little porch in the front. The roof leans overhead to provide daily shade and it would look even more cozy and alluring if there was a bench(perhaps a swinging bench with lots of fluffy green pillows to lounge in with a great book) outside and some potted plants to greet people as they walk up to our little nook, but one thing at a time.

We have a large front window that looks out and we now have sheers covering it, what lies behind the window is my office, the dining/living room, playroom and piano room all in one. Sheers are fairly new, people used to be able to look in and before we organized there were mounds of boxes and furniture littering it, often I would think if people did come up to the door, what in the world would they be thinking?

The back-yard is relatively small but comfy. I want to put a lilac in the one left corner, but for now it is bare. It used to be home to a crab apple tree that littered our lawn with crab apples and wasn't very big but very ugly so we put it out of it's misery. There is then is again lots of bushes that have no names, and one that I do know is a burning bush tree -- Ashley. Then there is Oz or little dwarf blue spruce that guards another little garden inlay that lays against the side of our back deck. Along the house there is some wild onion, and baby pink peonies I have named Lady Di, they are my favorite in the back yard.

The only sad thing about them is you can't see them from the house or the deck, so unless you walk out into the yard you would never know they were there. In fact the very first year of our home life we almost missed them. I was really blue one day and decided to walk into the back yard that is always bathed in sunlight to catch some rays when I spotted them. Lady Di in her full splendor; that is the best looking part of the year for her, her flowers were so big and full and such a beautiful color they immediately cheered me up. It was beautiful surprise gift from God. I couldn't wait till Gil and Jess got home that day so I could take them out to enjoy my discovery with me.

Then we have a nice deck that houses our lawn furniture and a brand new awning to keep the sun off. The back-yard is so sunny that most of the time it was just too hot to actually sit out there and enjoy it, but since our wise investment we have enjoyed it so much, eating, having parties, reading, and the kids play outside now far more than they ever did. When you don't have to bath yourself in sunscreen every time you step out the door, you tend to step out the door more often.

However as I write this, I write it with some sadness for the day has past and my parents have ventured home, and my husband the fiendish man that he is has butchered our deck by cutting half the railing off. What a beast!!!!!!!! You see we discussed this plan of his, I was against it because it made the deck unsymmetrical a point that will unnerve and irritate me to no end, but he was insistent so we decided to think about it. Apparently unbeknowst to me the thinking process was over and the decision had been made, imagine my surprise. Oh well, if I don't learn over the winter to appreciate it, he will be nailing it back up in the spring.