Now and then
Added 2022-09-28 20:00:46 +0000 UTCMatt found these photos from 2013. This is the very first picture taken of what would become our backyard, from our first tour of the house:
A couple months later, this was our first snowfall in our first house:
Not exactly a winter wonderland, but still! A significant moment worth capturing and sending along to Matt’s family in England.
The fresh wood of the grow boxes jumps out at me, and the abandoned chicken coop, too. The willow tree (right of coop) is so spindly and naked! Gosh, and the fence! Bright blue!
And, of course, THE LAWN. So much lawn.
2022, nine years later.
I tried to recreate the same angle to make the comparison easier to recognize, but it’s so dramatically different that they may as well be two different yards.
The original three grow boxes (barely visible above) are old and gray, hidden behind the newer ones Matt built this summer. Like the hairline of a man approaching his 40s, the lawn has retreated by about a third or, maybe even approaching a half, of its former glory.
The willow tree has umbrella’ed out and was joined some years ago by that short, fluffy dogwood tree that we planted for privacy from the neighbors but instead of growing upwards it focused on filling out sideways which was not helpful at all. It did take the place of the chicken coop, though, so there’s that.
It’s difficult to tell, but this is basically a continuous shot of the same stretch of yard— see the middle grow box? It is split almost perfectly in half between its 2013 and 2022 states. It really shows how much lawn we’ve removed! A hole big chunk!!!!
My garden is not in its sexiest season right now, it’s not as lush and green as it was over the last few months :-/ Crops have been harvested, existing plants are winding down as fall rolls in.
But I’ve got some fresh seedlings kicking up, so there’s still stuff for me to get excited about every day. (Above: Broccoli, planted from seeds I collected from last year’s harvest)
I’ll keep you updated. You know I will.
