August 2007

The road in front of our house has been torn up for about 14 months now.

Actually, it looks much better now than it did.  For a while, we had a construction trailer and a porta potty at the end of our drive.

Our yappy little dorkies think it is wonderful to have all these guys out in front of the house to bark at. These workers also like to leave their fast food trash laying out, so that a trip up the hill with me to our relocated mail box, means a snack bonanza for the dogs.

Here is the view from the foot of my driveway. My blog buddy, Carlene, http://carlenefederer.blogspot.com/ , was showing the ocean view from her vacation condo, and it got me thinking about my own views.

My views really are improving, although it is hard to tell from these pictures.  It has been nasty for the longest time. But we are down to one crew only right now! We did have the county working on the bridge, TMobile putting up a tower, and the city working across the street.

The tower is done and really isn’t as bad we thought it might be from up close.  Living through the construction was the hardest part.

I think the view for the neighbors is much worse that it is for us, we don’t even see it, only the fence at the base, the top is way up over the trees.  Yes, I know it is ugly, but the checks that come every month pay our mortgage!! Yes,I know it is ugly, but when the mortgage is paid off, the monthly checks will help fund our retirement.  I try to see dollar signs when I look at it, instead of shiny metal towering over me. 

But after a year of this road torn up and the front of the yard gutted, I have gotten pretty good at ignoring ugliness.

I try to look at how lush our garden is this year and how big the tomatoes are.

And at how pretty the wisteria is and how well it is growing.

Here is a side view of the cottage.

I just have to ignore that it is August in Kansas and unless I want to water the lawn and gardens every day and get nothing else done, I’ll just have to live with some wilty plants and some brown grass.  I try to notice how nice the gazebo looks and I concentrate on watering th plants hanging in it.  There is only so much one person can do to keep things up in a big yard.

This is the back of our house, as seen from my garden. Yep, I know there are weeds growing in the gravel of the driveway.

But look at how big my forsythia has grown and at all the firewood we have cut and ready for winter!

Another casualty of mid-summer in Kansas, the poor flower beds around my chicken coop are a bit sad and run down.  But the greenery and vines are doing great, and I give the flowers enough water to keep them alive to start flourishing again when the summer cools down into fall.

I’ve planted enough hardy native ground covers so that it doesn’t look too bad when I don’t have time to tend to it all.  And I try to use vintage finds from garage sales to liven up areas, like this old suitcase I painted white, and filled with dirt to plant in.

And I’d rather think of the peeling paint on this gate in the front of the house as rustic, instead of an eyesore. Eventually, I’ll get out there with the paint brush to spruce it up, but maybe not this season.

Behind the chicken coop, the rose of Sharon is blooming and brightens the area up, even though the aqua paint on the door has a peeling problem too.  I found the awning along the road in the trash, brought it home and hung it on the coop.

And thank goodness for old fashioned creeping myrtle! It stays green and happy, all year, making this path way on the side of the house welcoming even on the hottest days.  I don’t even bring a hose over here, all the plants on this side of the house are native varieties that take care of themselves.

When I did the landscaping on this old farm house, I tried to keep it easy to maintain. Lots of gravel pathways  (I personally hauled 11 tons of gravel with a wheelbarrow over the course  of a summer), perennials that don’t take much care, and lots of little vignettes to add character when the flowers aren’t at their peak.

A frog planter with chippy paint (rustic and charming, not messy and needing work, right???) hides in the euonymous.

I found this old arched bridge in a land fill and dug it out to make a path across a flower bed full of day lillies, myrtle, and spirea.

A rusting stove lid hangs on a fence.

My herbs grow in an iron planter that used to be a hot water tank.

I keep my garden chemicals in a metal cabinet that I also found in the trash and repainted with roses. And I hand painted my deck with big green leaves, trying to keep it unobtrusive.

Oh, my I have run on too long. I can show more of the "making the best of what you have" cottage yard tour tomorrow if anyone wants me to.  Or should I move back on to some more pretty things?

Also, I have been tagged by http://bethanyjanehissong.blogspot.com/ to come up with 8 random things about me. I think I have run on long enough, tho, I’ll think about it and do that one later.