Walking the Domain

Oh Blogger. I have spent the last hour trying to write this post and move my photos around into the correct position. Then when I finally got it semi-right and went to preview it, I somehow accidentally hit a button that lost the whole dang thing. Big sigh here. Big, BIG, sigh.
Well, here we go again. I'll see if I can get it right this time. Someday my younger son will be home to visit and I will get him to teach me how to do these things right!
I thought I'd show a bit of our "domain" today, a way to show Langela why I have a wee bit of envy for her wide open Iowa spaces. We live in what was once a farming community in the eastern part of the state. Although most of the farming is gone, there are still a number of dairy farms in town. It is rural and pleasant, a typical small town New England place and we love it here. Our property is about 6 wooded acres of what used to be my husband's grandfather's farm. The majority of that farm, over a hundred acres are still intact and undeveloped along side our place. So, let's take a walk.
Here is our front yard. It's on top of a hill and the house we built ourselves, quite literally, when we were in our twenties.

 Walking down the driveway, which is s-shaped, you can see my garden on the right. See all those trees? When we first moved here, the weren't there! What you see was a meadow covered in juniper bushes, on which at times horses were grazed. All this has grown up over 30 years, and that, despite the fact that we heat with wood and have often cut trees down. Nature is a powerful force!

 Keep on walking toward the road. You can see a tiny piece of it in the center of the picture. It's like walking through a tunnel.

 Now we'll turn around and walk back up towards the house. There's my garden again, now it's to our left. And oh yes, trees. This is why I fret so much about my veggies not getting enough sunlight.

 Still walking up the hill towards the house, which will be on the right when we turn the bend.

 But we'll keep walking around to the back yard. As you can see, the house needs paint. We started an addition to the house four years ago. It is finished now, but still has to be painted to match the rest of the house. Being far from the road makes it easier to procrastinate with that job.

 My husband is the landscaper and he does a spectacular job. The pictures don't show it, but he has beautiful flower plantings and herbs all over. He's also in charge of our berries and fruit. Here's his small kitchen garden where he grows his favorites, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and often peas and beans. He's also growing ground cherries this year. Sunlight is an issue for him too, as you can see.

 Looking at the back. Our plastic greenhouse, to be replaced eventually with a real one we hope. And, of course, more trees. We're surrounded!

 D's blueberry bushes. We have eight large bushes which generally ripen berries in late July. Last year D planted eight more small bushes, because you can never have enough blueberries, especially if you haven't netted them to keep the birds away!We also have, not pictured, a herb garden, plantings of red currant, black currant, gooseberry, blackberry and raspberry. Some are older and producing and some are new and yet to show us a harvest. So there you have it! We do love our home and I feel very blessed to have all that land. But I would not mind at all having a lumberjack take down some of those darned trees!