Busy in the Yard

A few days ago I found pictures I took when we were looking for houses. Nestled among the pictures of ugly light fixtures and hideous carpet that I took for my amusement were the first pictures I ever took of our house. The lawn was lush and green, the plants thriving and well-tended, the house's facade clean and shining.

It made me sad.

Now our lawn is patchy and a little brown, some of our plants have died, and brown crusties have appeared on the facade. But along with spring came plans to do a little yard work. With May and Pop here last weekend, I was able to have a little help. First up were the azaleas in the front yard. When we moved in we had two, but one quickly died. The other has limped along, but isn't in good shape. Both had white blooms, which I find terribly bland, so we decided to replace them. We picked Girard's Fuchsia Azalea, planted them in the front of the house, and they look like this:
Ah, much better. Then, in the backyard, we had a dead tree. It was actually a dead treelet, barely into its preteen years and still using training wheels. In my pictures I was glad to see that we hadn't killed it, we had just let it sit there and decompose for a year. In any event, my parents brought a clipping from my grandfather's fig trees last year, and after letting it winter inside, I was ready to set it free. We picked a sunny spot along the back fence and planted it:
I have fond memories of eating figs at my grandparent's house, listening to the birds and squirrels fight over the fruits early in the morning, and watching my grandfather concoct various contraptions to keep said birds and squirrels out of the trees all together. I look forward to someday sharing figs with Sam.

Not bad for a Saturday afternoon's work.