We've been blessed with more snow than any year we've lived here, and it's a good thing since we've had much less rain than usual. The wildlife in our backyard is a constant source of entertainment. Besides the many deer, we've seen squirrels, fox, possums, raccoons, rabbits, groundhog, armadillo, coyote, skinks, snakes, hummingbirds, and all kinds of other birds.
Our three oldest grandsons helped us string party lights and put together a fire pit in August and we have enjoyed it so much. Several wiener roasts and S'mores parties have been had, and until it got too cold, Ken and I often took our breakfast out to the patio. Can't wait until the weather is nice enough to do that again!
We are just loving the dry creek we had put in last summer. We've seen it through three seasons now and I can't wait to see it in the spring. After a little snafu when we got four inches of rain in less than an hour just hours after the creek was finished (thankfully, the landscapers returned and quickly repaired the damage free of charge) the creek has been doing its job perfectly! Here are a few images from late fall 2021. The grandkids think the dry creek makes a great playground. And we've loved having the older boys help with the raking!
We are still loving our Missouri home and have recently made some big changes to the backyard here. To add beauty and control the flow of rainwater that sometimes threatens to get too close to the house, we had some major landscaping done in August of this year (2021). We're so pleased with how this dry creek and stairway turned out! Here's a little photo tour from start to finish. (Well, gardens are never truly finished, and we do hope to eventually add some plantings tucked in among the rocks.)
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| The view from the dining room is so pretty! |
The deer have been a constant delight (and an occasional annoyance when they eat the things we plant) but they are never more stunning than when it's snowing in our Missouri backyard. These shots are from late February 2021.
So happy to get a little snow on this January day. Not much of it stuck, but it sure was pretty coming down.
We've never had a screened porch before, but I can tell you now that I don't ever want to be without one again! Our wish-list for a house in Missouri had a covered porch on it, but we got so much more in this glorious space high above the back yard.
Not only is there a ceiling fan and screens all around, but since we're protected in a "valley" at the bottom of a hill, we have very little wind, and with our wide eaves, we can sit out here, even when it's pouring rain, and barely get damp.
We'll show you more of that wonderful screened porch you get a glimpse of at right in another post, but these are the two spaces we have to work with: a patio with a long view up the sloping backyard (most of which is owned—and thankfully mowed—by the neighbor at the top of the hill.
I let it "slip" in my last post that we'll soon be moving from our beloved Kansas in July 2019! We have loved living here in Kansas whether country or city, in small towns and large. But our hearts are torn because all our kids and grandkids live far away.
As hard as it will be to leave our native state, we want to be part of our grandkids' lives, and most of them live in Missouri, so we are packing up and moving to the southeast corner of that beautiful state. Our house has sold to a wonderful family—friends of ours from our church—which makes it so much easier to leave the Kansas house and yard we've enjoyed so much.
We're buying a house in a new town (smaller than Wichita) and we're excited to explore a new kind of gardening. I got to check off the #1 item on my wishlist with this lovely wooded backyard that will soon be ours.
