Thursday, October 06, 2005

A little fall nature walk

I was racking my brain, trying to think of something to blog about this morning (my sweet, sweet hubby told me the other day that reading my blog is the highlight of his morning, so now I feel some pressure to blog every day!), and decided that I would take a little stroll around the yard and snap some nature pics.

It is definitely fall here, as evidenced by the lovely color of our little maple tree out on the hell strip (this is what my mother-in-law calls the little strip of land between the sidewalk and the street).


This pic of our Japanese maple being taken over by some weird green vine shows my complete lack of desire to do any yard work whatsoever (my mother-in-law gets so annoyed with me when she comes over):


Here are the raspberries we planted earlier this year. We got two bushes for $1.99 each, and they just keep producing raspberry after raspberry. We planted them between the driveway and the house to try to contain them (since they spread like crazy), which means that I get to grab a couple every time I go out to the car. Yum!


On to the backyard, where we have a gigantic fig tree (in a tiny yard) that is threatening to envelop the play structure and the corner of the house...


It's a pretty tree, but we're cutting it down ASAP because of this:


Sydney can't even play back there at all anymore because the entire back yard is covered in rotting, moldy figs. It is so disgusting. Even if we liked figs, which we don't, this tree probably produced close to 1,000, most of which are half-eaten by birds and squirrels before they are ripe enough for a human to want them (and out of reach at the top of this thing, which is gigantic). It is going to be an icky, icky job cleaning them all up.

On a brighter note, we also have some tomatoes that are going to be ready to slice up and put on hamburgers soon. Nothing can compare to the taste of a ripe, home-grown tomato fresh off the vine! Ripen, you tomatoes, ripen!



Sydney got a little delivery from the mailman yesterday:


Ever since we went to Hood River this past summer and rode on Thomas, she has been absolutely crazy about him. She gets so excited, that just saying "Thomas" will throw her into a gleeful fit. When I first got this out of the box and opened it up, she ran into the kitchen to hide. She spent about 10 minutes slowly coming out to the living room, peeking around the corner, then shrieking and running away again. This was followed by an hour or so of her crawling in and out of the two doors on Thomas, yelling "Mommy, I'm in my Thomas tent! I'm in my Thomas tent, Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!" Hey, anything that keeps her busy that long is A-okay in my book...

5 Comments:

Blogger Jillio said...

OMG! thomas! there's this store called Thinker Toys that has this play Thomas play table and sells little wooden trains with magnets to connect the cars. i mean, this place has EVERYTHING Thomas, and my nephew KNOWS that store. when it comes into view, he squirms to get out and goes straight to the table. so you know what my mom does? she buys him his own play table and play sets to go with it. and that stuff isn't cheap. buying one car can cost anywhere from $10 - $15!!?!!? SPOILED. ROTTEN. i was lucky if i got to share a radio flyer trike with my brother when i was little. hmph! i guess if it's your first grandchild and you got the money...but it's like christmas for him every day! yeah, i'm bitter.
ANYWAYS! THANK YOU for the pictures of your foliage. i am seriously "homesick" for oregon--especially during fall. i say "homesick" because i imagine that's the feeling i SHOULD have been feeling for Hawaii when i was at school in Oregon--but i didn't. i miss the maple trees. my college had lots of trees all over campus, and i loved seeing the maple trees change color as the weather started turning cold. *sigh* so yes, thank you for that.

10:57 AM  
Blogger Laura said...

We love Thomas in this house too. My older son (who has mild autism) actually used to get really fixated on his Thomas toys. Now, not so much, thank goodness. Strangely, many many autistic kids are IN LOVE with trains, and Thomas in particular.

That is so funny about your mom calling it the "hell strip." My husband and dad call it the "devil strip"! I call it the "tree lawn."

BTW, love your Spork!

12:37 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

It's so lovely to see vibrant fall foliage. The colors change here a little, but it's not the same thing. Just think of all the pretty flowers you can plant in the new sunny spot when the fig tree is gone!

4:55 PM  
Blogger chris said...

OMG, Bossy Boots is OBSESSED with Thomas!! We have all these Thomas DVD's and die-cast trains and books and...(you know how it is.) IT'S CRAZY! And because big brother is into it, well then, of COURSE Sister Stinky is into it, too. The upside is that I can pop in a DVD and have at least 20 minutes to blog comment, like now. :-) Those pics are GORGEOUS! That maple is so beautiful, and I can't believe you have your own fig tree!! And that you're cutting it down! AAH! LOVE figs, but we have to pay INSANE prices here for them, like $7.99 for a pound. With slices of prosciutto? To die for... The raspberries look incredible, too. I wish it would change seasons here!

6:24 PM  
Blogger roxy =^o^= said...

I like fried green tomatoes - seeing your garden pics made me yearn for my own little 4x4 patch again LOL

Very nice!

8:35 PM  

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