Thursday, July 19, 2012

my mother-in-law's gorgeous yard

I took some wide views of my MIL's yard so you can get an idea how impressive her gardening skills are.






Front side yard.



Backyard - see the canvas gazebo? It is the home of a mourning dove.

She has her nest on the top shelf of the baker's rack.

Back corner of back side yard.

Back side yard. The bit of blue is the tent the girls' spent the night with Grammy in it. 


Tim's parents rented a bounce house for a day.



 The Sunday before we arrived, mama dove laid her eggs. 




The babies hatched the day before we left. 

 While I was documenting the yard, I found this stray. It was wounded and wandering around with the cone. We brought it to the humane society. See what he is staring at?



Many of you have asked how I am doing. I am volunteering for an inner-city VBS this week, which means I've had late nights and long hours working up photos and compiling them. I finished today (if the director is satisfied). Tomorrow we get to go see a play and then on Saturday, we will go to a fund raiser for my sister's twins. Soon, I hope to share detail photos of my MIL's flowers.

16 comments:

  1. Anonymous2:10 PM

    beautiful, Melissa! :) I love the black and white pictures. I hope the kitty is alright. I would literally die if something happened to my cats.

    I'll be writing you soon!

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  2. Her yard is lovely. I spied a stag horn fern in the green house. Don't wear yourself out please.

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  3. Your MIL has quite the green thumb! Very cool to see the dove hatchlings. Good to hear your VBS photo shoots went well. I hope the twins are continuing to improve.

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  4. Oh I love all the pics! So cute. Love the one of her (I am assuming is grammy) laying over with her socks on and jammies! Hugs and blessings, Cindy

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  5. Wow, you've had your plate full! Your MIL's garden is impressive. Wishing you some rest and that all is well. :)

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  6. Whooooa! I'm super-impressed with your MIL's handiwork. Not only does she have a green thumb, but the rest of her fingers are green too, it would appear!

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  7. Your MIL's garden is beautiful! the archway in the first photograph is incredible. I dream of having a garden retreat like that (urban yard with too much shade it's not possible). You captured mamma bird so well. I hope the twins' benefit goes well. I will be sending positive thoughts and prayers your family's way.

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  8. Great post and pics, Melissa. I'm back in the blogosphere for at least a few weeks. Have a look if you have time... Nice to see pics of the Howards. I enjoyed the back yard when we were there in 1994... its only gotten better! I'm off to New England Monday.

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  9. Anonymous10:00 AM

    You say this cat was a stray? It is clearly wearing an identity tag so how could it have been homeless?
    It has obviously had veterinary treatment as it's wearing the cone. It's owner is probably frantic with worry now you've taken it away. Couldn't you have contacted the owner from the details on the identity tag?

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    1. I should add that in my opinion an animal whose owners intentionally let the animal wander at will are promoting stray animals and the problems that come to both humans and animals as a result. It doesn't matter if the animal is wearing tags if you do not take proper care of it.

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    2. The cat was wandering the neighborhood for several days while we were there and yes it was clear where its home was. However, based on the fact that they let a cat who was injured and wearing a cone wander freely in an area populated by coyotes indicated to us that they did not care enough for their cat to keep it inside where it was safe (before this day when it was stranded on my in-laws terrace I had seen it be let into its home so his clearly made the decision to allow the cat to wander freely in an dangerous area). We felt the owners were being negligent. It was my FIL's hope that when the humane society called the owners and they had to retrieve their cat they would be lectured by animal control about their negligence and potential harm to their pet and be more responsible in the future.

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  11. Anonymous9:14 AM

    I wonder about the kind of neighbourhood that prompts someone to take a neighbours animal to the humane society without speaking to the neighbour themselves.
    Obviously this is a rough and dangerous neighbourhood, either that or there is no friendship amongst neighbours (and you're not promoting friendship by taking the animal away without the owners consent - hadn't you also considered the distress caused to the animal?)
    Not somewhere I'd want to live.

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  12. Wow! Quite the gardening skills, indeed. I would love to have any bird choose my yard for a nest...how lucky!

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  13. Oh Kitty! Someone cares about you...who would put a kitty out like that with a cone???

    How fun that girls got to have such a fun time! :) Your in-laws sure know how to treat the grand kids. :)

    Liz

    P.S.I hope all this extra work means that you are doing well???

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  14. Yikes.... I didn't read the comments before posting... I just want to be clear...I think that you did the right thing by taking the kitty to the humane society.

    ~Liz

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