Hope no one minds this thread - over the last week I have been working for HOURS to get my flower beds done. I am firmly convinced that if I didn't have to work for a living I wouldn't have to worry about my weight ever again! The amount of calories burned weeding and planting!

So I want to show off.

Lovely! I need to do more decorative planting. It does burn the calories.

Absolutely lovely!!!

So pretty!

Nice - particularly the flourishing trumpet vine.

It looks like you have no neighbours close by. I can't imagine that, having lived "cheek to jowl" with people all of my life in urban settings. I can see how you would be able to have all the pets - no one to bother you about them.

Dagmar

Your hard work is paying off, your place looks great.

Thank you for sharing. I really love seeing photographs like this! Beautiful!

It looks like you live on an acreage.

Thanks everyone! We do live on a LOT of land. Our nearest neighbor is about 1/4 mile from us and it's DH's father. I cannot imagine living close to anyone!

CherryPie99,

I was just looking at the photographs of your journey. Amazing. I'm curious: since you have lost the weight, have you tried to lift and carry 228 pounds?

You are inspiring in both gardening and health!

Annik

Jen, that looks great -- and I wonder about that trellis with the turned finial on top of it. What is that thing? I like it a lot -- looks historic & appropriate for your 19th century house.

You mentioned you had a historic house, but oh my, what a beauty. That looks like cut and dressed limestone blocks, and based on the width of it, it looks like an early Greek Revival period house. I love these, and also the cobblestone houses along Lake Ontario and the various Finger Lakes. Seeing this makes me homesick. I used to wish I could live in one, but life & looking for work took me downstate, where it appears I will stay. (But I have a little piece of Upstate NY with me as I've got hanging flower baskets from Ontario Orchards in Oswego which my mother brought down in the back of her van for me.)

they are wonderful! thank you for sharing!!!

Several years ago my parents moved from the burbs to the country, my dad retired and spends all his time gardening/farming. In the winter he will gain a little weight from being cooped up inside but in the spring and summer it all melts away. He keeps telling me if I want to lose weight I should just 'work outside.' Thanks, Dad. lol

Annik - I have not tried to lift that much - I'm sure I couldn't do it! It is bizarre, huh, to think that I carried that around every day!

My uncle made that trellis for me. I had it in a different area - kind of stuck back in the lilacs and had a Clematis growing on it. It was a little buried in the and the lilacs continued to grow, but I love lilacs so much I didn't want to cut them back. So last year I pulled it out, gave it a fresh coat of paint and decided to make it the "star" of a new bed. That is a yellow trumpet vine growing on it and I think it is going to look beautiful when it blooms!

Unfortunately we don't have a lot of history to the house. We know it was used to bake bread for the soldiers during the 1812 war. When DH's father bought it, it was pretty well falling down. We do have a picture of a large horse standing in what is now our kitchen looking out the bay window!

I'm glad you are able to retain some of your history here - it's a whole different world from upstate to down, isn't it?

Mak247 - I believe your dad is right! Unfortunately, I like my standard of living too well to give up my day job at this point!!

Jen

Just a couple more of the back of the house and chicken coop.

Jen. I grew up on Minnesota and am used to seeing the lilacs blooming in the spring. How glorious ! Lilacs will grow in California but any blooms you get are apt to be wimpy. They need that cold winter to form blooms . I miss them and their wonderful fragrance