Glorious Spring!

We are really enjoying Spring and the great weather we've had so far!  The last couple of days, we've spent large amounts of time outdoors, staking out our garden (we decided on 15' x 20'), visualizing our future patio, marking out some landscaping patterns, and deciding which trees and shrubs are going to have to be removed.  We will probably be making these dreams a reality for the next several years as we have the money and the time to do them.  But I think that's part of the fun of having a beautiful vision and we can savor the realization of it over time.  We are so excited about our plans and I can see alot of it in my head.  I'm thinking of getting a software package to be able to transfer what I can see in my mind to paper, but we'll see.  For now it's strictly drawings by hand.

I thought I would post just a couple of pics I've taken that showcase the beauty of our yard, before the improvements even start!  This house was a great find economically speaking, but we also lucked out in getting a large, mature lot.

This is a picture I took about a month ago, it's the beautiful blooms of a shrub in our front yard that I have yet to identify what it is.  This thing looked amazing for a couple of weeks and now it's blooms are all shriveled up and brown.  The shrub is also about half dead.  We plan to cut it out because it sits smack dab in the middle of our front yard, surrounded by invasive day lillies.  I plan to get rid of the entire thing so I can have  a large area in which to play croquet.  Croquet is a family past time for me, we would always play it in my Grandma's large yard in Sioux Falls so I'm really looking forward to having the space to play.  If I can determine what kind of shrub this is, I will probably get a new one and plant it in a better spot in the yard.  If I can't, at least I have some lovely photos of this one! :)

In addition to croquet in the front yard, Dan plans to put in a horse shoe pit in the back.  We LOVE to have barbeques, bon fires, and all manner of outdoor fun - and the interior of our home is quite small, less than ideal for entertaining large groups of family and friends - utilizing the outdoor space for all it's worth makes perfect sense.

This is the view out of our kitchen window.  Currently, the microwave is placed in front of the window (with my "die hard" plants sitting on top of it - amazing that I haven't managed to kill these yet after more than a year of having them!)  When we remodel the kitchen, we will shorten this window to sit above counter level and we will place the sink under it.  I think we're also going to widen it a bit to get a wider view.  The view is to the north and a lovely row of lilacs that seperates our yard from the neighbor.  We also plan to put our patio and the children's playset to the north of the house so we can enjoy the shade we have on that side of the house and see the kids playing through the kitchen window.  We also want to put some bird feeders throughout the yard to attract more creatures to enjoy. 

It's going to be great!