Sweetie Is Full Of Surprises

I hope you all had a fabulous Mother's Day Weekend!

As much as I tried to take some time to relax, it didn't happen....there's just far too much to be done around the gardens at this time of year.  

Lucky for me, I have a wonderful man who loves to use power tools and big-boy toys and really loves to get things done!

Last evening when he picked me up for 'date night' Sweetie asked me if I noticed anything different around the house.

Well, no, I hadn't....unfortunately it was a stormy day and I didn't get to do my usual 'walkabout' when I came home. 

Do you do that also? Every morning and every evening I grab the pups and we walk around checking all the garden beds to see what grew. 

Well, I check out the gardens.....the pups go on a monster sniff-about, chasing anything that squeaks. 

But I digress. 

Sweetie was surprised I hadn't noticed anything, and with good reason!

Even without a proper walkabout I should have noticed that my garden steps went from the view above....

....To this! Aside from all the greening up (yayyyyy!) do you notice the HUGE change? 

Let's look at it from down below, looking up. 

My view from the garden bench in the corner of the front garden went from this.....

....To THIS!!  What a massive improvement that is!

Please tell me you can see the change now? I can't believe I didn't notice this straight away when I got home...I'm sure I must have glanced down the garden steps as I was walking from the garage door to the kitchen door! 

Sweetie spent the day taking down the big pine shrub/tree at the entrance to the front garden, which was quite the task! 

The tree was special to the previous owners as they had pulled a sapling from the side of the road by a beach in Long Island many years ago and planted it in their front garden. 

However, the tree had outgrown the area it was planted in, and had suffered serious damage during Winter Storm Riley.  Sweetie had cut off the damaged limbs a few weeks back, and we had discussed trying to prune it back into some sort of shape. 

But when I sat on the bench in the evening sunshine on Monday, I realized it had no relevance to the landscaping, and it really had to go. 

I love the conical form of the spruces, and I'm a big fan of evergreens in general, but this wild tree had to go. 

I happened to mention it briefly to my sweetie over dinner, and the very next day he surprised me by making it happen!

 

What a wonderful difference it makes already having that big tree gone!

Obviously the ground is torn up and will need to have some work done to repair it, but I love that I can see my garden paths and steps more clearly, as well as the pretty landscape around my home. 

Even the view looking towards my neighbors' house is prettier with that tree gone! It feels 'right' now, as it was always supposed to be like this. 

Some of the torn up area will be turned into an extension of the existing flower bed, and some will be reseeded as lawn. I just have to mark out the parameters of what I want and I can get started with that project. 

While I was wandering around taking photos, the sky was putting on the most glorious post-storm show.

We were fortunate up here on the mountain top - we got heavy rain, thunder, lightening, winds....but nothing like down in the valley where trees were downed, and many homes are without power. 

I stayed out another little while enjoying the show, and then made my way inside to relax for the rest of the evening. 

All this garden work has me worn out - my body lets me know it's not as young as it used to be.  I'm ever so glad to crawl into my cozy bed at night and let my muscles relax - they need to be rested and ready to do it all over again the following weekend.

Meanwhile where are my little helpers? 

Yup, that's about what we can expect around here!