Backyard Business

First of all...my new strawberries!

We've gotten three off this plant so far and they are...delicious.

As I said before, we've had big plans for our backyard since we bought this house. Our land is a full third of an acre, which may seem small to some, but it is HUGE in the city where we live. This whole neighborhood was built on apple orchards, and our house was the original farmhouse dating back to 1812. It's a great lot with some scrubby forest in the back, but we didn't plan to do anything with it for a few years down the road. That was until our neighbor built his underground garage.

Probably not cool of me to post pics of his project, so I won't. Just suffice to say that he's got a mountain of beautiful, rich orchard topsoil ripped up in his backyard doing nothing. It was actually going to cost him money to truck it out so he offered some to us. Our friendly neighborhood landscaper, Frankie, offered to spread it for us in the Lonely part of our backyard as well as take down some of the scrubbier trees. This is where we were this time last week - Frank's got his check, the dirt is screened and ready, and the trees are marked. Backyard part deux, go!

Backyard as of July 2009

Backyard as of May 2010...a bit tidier. Not by much.

You have to squint, but the big black cherry tree is down. Thankfully. It was a nasty old tree that was blocking the sun to my buddileas.

Tree down view 2...

Aaaand that's where we are for now. We're pretty much frozen in time until Frank comes back, cleans up the brush, takes down the remaining trees, clears out the wood, and THEN lays two layers of topsoil. It should look amazing when done. It just might take all summer. But we're going to be here for a looong time...we can wait. :)

Other than that, we've been busy with family and wedding. My sister graduated last week from UNH (yes, my alma mater as well) and we had a great time celebrating with her. She's now moving on to her own house project that we can't wait to help with!

Sister and Penny love.

Also, my two best friends and bridesmaids Joanna and Ashley helped me make these awesome program fans for the wedding. They do amazing things with some paper and glue! We are going to have such a classy, breezy wedding! :) Thanks girls!