Why I Oughta...

Earlier this Spring, I spent time in Tokyo where in addition to heading to Tokyo Disneyland and checking out the fish market, we were also there during the peak Cherry Blossom season.  I wrote about the trees here on the blog back in April .  I've been enamored with the trees ever since.  And trees have been on my mind lately as we continue to think about our yard.  I'm trying to get an early start on trees, because unlike sod or even flowers or bushes, trees take much longer to mature to the point to where they've grown into their size.  I've already posted about how we picked up a Dawn Redwood tree and planted it.   I also posted about the space we're going to fill in with either flowering pear trees or perhaps European Hornbeams along our northside.  And, of course, there's the Linden trees that I'm going to try to espalier .   (At what point, can we start calling it an arboretum??) For Mother's Day, I also picked up Nat a Japanese flowering

Last check-in on our house was showing the footprint of the patio out back , but things continue to move along both inside and outside.  One of the latest things is the installation of our new driveway.  Above, you see the apron or approach between the driveway and the street being installed by the crew.  We were able to get there while the concrete was setting up and Nat etched out name in the driveway. At our old place, we didn't have much of a driveway.  Our garage was out back off the alley and we had a kind of 'pad' for one car out front.  Thus, shoveling wasn't a big issue.  I'd break out the shovel and spend more time on the sidewalk than on the driveway.  But, just look at this thing!?!   We decided to set the house back an additional 20 feet behind where it had to be (by code) because we wanted to try to save a tree that we would have had to cut down.  But, that created 20 additional feet of driveway that I'm going to have to tend to this winter.  

Earlier this week, I posted a photo of a felt Christmas mouse ornament from an Estate Sale, but it wasn't the only Christmas item that I came home with that day: I also got this Santa.  He's all gangly and has wire 'pose-able' limbs with a cute wooden face.  And those eyelashes, right?  There's a pretty strong legacy in the vintage Christmas world it seems to have a strong eyelash game.   Here's an angel ornament with some serious eyelashes .   Then there is this deer with major eyelashes .  And this pair of ornaments with strong lashes, too . This Santa has a weird belt that you can see up higher than his waist.  It isn't connected anywhere and is bigger - around - than the white band at his waist.  In our new place, I'm sure we'll find a place for him come November.

Even though our #NewOldFarmhouse is still under construction, that isn't stopping us from having an impact on the backyard.  And that started with transplanting some of the ostrich ferns and now it includes the planting of the Dawn Redwood tree that I posted about last week .  I was lucky to have a little bit of help from my crew getting this tree in the ground.  All three kids helped decide where we should put it and then helped me (kinda) dig the hole and backfill the rootball. We placed it close to the north property line, with enough room for it to grow while being able to put a fence in behind it.  There was an opening in the tree line that I think this will fill in nicely over time. It also is on the low side of the property, so it will enjoy whatever groundwater we get over time.  My experience tells me that this thing will go through a little shock soon, but I'm hoping that with some care and watering, it will weather this first year and begin to fill in and grow

Last week, my buddy Justin texted me a link and said "Here's a song for you."  It was this song - Me & Magdalena - by The Monkees.  Yeah.  The Monkees.  It is in the YouTube player above.  (If you are reading this in your email and can't see the player above, click here to see it .)  I can't stop listening to it.  I haven't even been able to check out much more of the album because I keep coming back to this one song. Have a listen.  I think you'll like it. Over on All Songs Considered , they give more background about how this album and this song in particular came together.  In honor of The Monkees 50th anniversary, they've put out a new record full of previously unreleased songs and a few new ones written for the band.  Including this song that was written by Ben Gibbard from Death Cab for Cutie.   From the story : And, though Mike Nesmith won't tour to support Good Times! — he left the band a few years back — he does appear on the

Earlier in May, I posted about one of what I called 'troublesome privacy spots' in our new backyard .  This post, covers what I think will be the solution to the other one of those 'troublesome privacy spots' - this time being on the south side of our lot close to our neighbor's patio.   We're looking into fences and will likely get a 6' privacy fence close to the house, tapering down to a four-foot fence for the balance of the yard, but I'm also taking this opportunity to try something I've wanted to for a while:   espalier'ing a pair of trees. Don't know what an espalier tree is?   Here's a post that chronicles the history of the practice  that is worth reading, but in a nutshell it is the intersection of the science of how things grow with the art of gardening.  You trim and train trees to be just two-dimensional objects.  That's espalier. At our previous place, our landscape architect spec'd an espaliered fruit tree alo

The last time I posted a 'view from my office' was a few months ago when we had a March snowfall in the city , but this week, Chicago's ' front yard ' is greening up nicely and the boats are starting to come into the harbor.  It is a delightful time to be around the city - things are blooming, but the heat isn't here yet, so the walk from Ogilvie to Aon isn't sweat-inducing.  Yet.