Blooms, Buds, and Nosy Busy Bodies

It's been chilly around here, but spring has sprung...

...the lilacs are blooming,

and the iris are getting ready to explode

with their flags...

...all in all the front bed is filling in nicely.

This young clematis is starting to bloom early.

Go away fly!  You were not supposed to be in my picture.

Some very beautiful young Norwegian pines have been added to our parkway,

courtesy Dan.

Hopefully they will survive... they will be fun to decorate in winter.

The front yard is really neatly trimmed

and very green.

There is a lot of work that was put into making this yard pretty.

When we first moved in, this house had been vacant for a year

and was completely overgrown and in need of major repairs.

You would never recognize it now from when we first bought it.

A small grove of cherry trees has also be added to the backyard...courtesy Dan.

The puppies keep digging at one tree in particular,

so there are some bricks at the root to discourage that.

When we first moved in,

Dan started his garden.

Every year he adds more beds, and it has really grown.

This year, we added some decorative fencing around it,

mostly to prevent the puppies from stealing.

We're going to grow roses over the arbor

and more grapes on the front.

Here's the other side.

You can see our other grapevines along the property line fence in the back.

And now for the the busy body gossip.

You can see our chicken coop has been moved.

It was not something we wanted to do.

But Dan felt we should attempt to compromise.

I will reference my HEDGE on the east side of our property.

You cannot see it in this photo, it is on the far side of the house.

It was planted to block out the view of them.

They started planting tall hedges along our fence several years ago, to block US out,

so we planted BIGGER ones in response (to show them how it's done, of course).

For those who have read here before, you know we don't get along with this particular set of neighbors.

They will never talk to you unless there is a "problem."

BTW, there's ALWAYS a problem,

and we ALWAYS seem to be IT.

Let me tell ya, we're not the heavy drinkers on this street.

It doesn't matter that we completely turned this whole property around that they are adjacent to.

We're such troublemakers!

Our hens woke up sleeping beauty.

The SHAME of it all.

How dare they start trouble when their own property

is in disarray and their own animals are loose for hours at a time and running wild through the neighborhood peeing on everyone's flowers and knocking small children off of bikes and growling at people?

Well, someone went home with an awful nasty EARFUL this time.

I usually keep my mouth shut and don't complain because we tend to stay private and mind our own business at all costs...

but if you poke a sleeping grizzly with a stick, you're going to get a ROAR.

Here's where our coop was before, outside our back picture window,

where the kids could watch them.  The grass has already been replanted.

And here's where our hens are now.

They will be happy here because they are good girls.

And we will make the best of it.

And yes, this is my venting outlet of the day.

Always best with visuals!

I'm pretty sure I should add, 'to be continued.'

Hmpf.