Over the Garden Wall

We live in a suburb of Chicago, in a subdivision designed to emulate a country feel. Our property lot sizes are more than double what you'll find in most housing developments (which was why we moved way out here), but the downside is we have no sidewalks. The builders felt that would urbanize the area too much, I guess. A little frightening walking in the street, though. Or having the kids walk to and from the bus stop with cars driving past. I suppose that's the price you pay.

Another negative is there's no neighborhood feel, and hardly anyone else has children the age of ours. Our house was built in the 70s, so an original owner who bought a house then is a grandparent by now. Another reason I felt so isolated when my children were small, finding myself sometimes wishing we'd have bought one of those Victorians in the old town area. Ah, well.

The red barn-like structure you see in the background of this photo is one of our neighbor's sheds, where they store things like a lawn mower, garden tools, etc. No horses or cattle out here, but I like the effect.

You can also see the red-tinted wood chip mulch poor Paul's been carting around the house to spread throughout the flower garden. Pity my knee hurt too badly to help. But I could sit and watch others work in a garden for hours, criticizing supervising what they're doing. It's like satellite TV, but better because it's MY garden being improved. Was it worth the pain of knee surgery? Still wondering about that.