Our backyard was a major selling point for us when we bought this house. It's a private, well-landscaped, little sanctuary - pretty unique for such a heavily populated area. Recently, however, the privacy element of our backyard was obliterated by a chainsaw. The neighbors to our right cut down their entire line of thick, wonderful, 8' tall hedges which formed a perfect barrier along the side of our yards. Even though they weren't mine, I loved those hedges.
Our little sanctuary has been sadly exposed - instead of lush greenery, our yard now offers a
disgracefully clear view of unsightly backyards all the way to the Cambridge line. I keep asking (make that whining) "WHY?!"
The same weekend the hedges came down, the neighbors on the other side decided to extend their driveway into their backyard. Not pretty. Call me a Yankee - but overlooking a pickup truck while grilling? Ick. To add insult to injury, some lovely flowering tree branches were casualties of the endeavor. All in the same weekend? It made me nauseous.
As of now, the Riley sanctuary borders a horticultural refugee camp on one side and Kentucky on the other (
see for yourself)
and then of course, the basement flooding neighbor at 12 o'clock...but that was last summer's project. What will we do? Well, that brings us to our next project.
See our plans for the yard as well as some before and curent pics
We just celebrated Andy's birthday last night and today it's snowing....this is SO wrong. So I'm hiding in the basement and using some serious skills of denial to remember/transport to our bright, green, sunny backyard:
Kristin and I have been going to U2 shows for quite sometime and for quite sometime, we've coveted the area know to fans as "the inner circle." The inner circle is an enclosed space right up against the stage for a couple hundred people. This time around, we made it inside! It took some camping-out, careful preparation and a bit of anxiety but in the end, victory was ours! There was only 1 person between us and the stage - we were so close, we could see The Edge's eyelashes!
So I stopped whining about the backyard and we got to work. We cut a new, curvy bed along the fence to accommodate 12 arborvitae trees. These little guys are supposed to be fast growers and should form a nice, thick wall of green in a couple of years. Our arborvitae bonanza took 2 weekends to complete + a Riley record-breaking 5 visits to Home Depot in one day. We're quite pleased with the results - it's better than it was before. Grow, baby, grow....can I feed them steroids?
We visited the Finger Lakes in upstate New York for a wine tasting. You might not be aware, but the Finger Lakes are home to a ton of wineries and some really beautiful landscapes. This wine region is known for its whites and since it's a cooler growing climate, the wines tend to be sweeter. I have to commend those brave little grapes - I could barely make it through Rochester winters myself!
Our backyard was a major selling point for us when we bought this house. It's a private, well-landscaped, little sanctuary - pretty unique for such a heavily populated area. Recently, however, the privacy element of our backyard was obliterated by a chainsaw. The neighbors to our right cut down their entire line of thick, wonderful, 8' tall hedges which formed a perfect barrier along the side of our yards. Even though they weren't mine, I loved those hedges.
It all began on Friday morning when Miles retrieved/delivered a familiar yellow envelope...the rest is a fun-filled blur of a weekend. Andy planned another Amazing Birthday Race for me - seriously, I'm a lucky girl. For a quick recap of the first one, go here.
