the rest of the nest...

soooo....

you've seen our house...

our love shack if you will.

now here's a peek at our yard.

still a bit neglected,

but we have plans.

our love is not contained by the walls of our home.

here's our firepit that paul made.

he dreamed it up and built it with his own hands.

by himself.

can you tell i'm proud?

he wanted to be able to share fires at night with

friends and each other.

and we have.

i love the glow of his fire on my face.

my (empty) birdfeeder.

oops.

a Christmas gift.

you should see the flock of birds

that come in the winter.

cardinals, blue jays, and

little black heads (what i call them, anyway).

i'm a bit of a bird watcher, really.

anything that flies captures my attention.

our old swing.

it was left here by the previous owners.

not the best,

but still the best.

it reminds me of my neighbors growing up.

faye and melvin and their blue swing.

it's perfect for talking and thinking and relaxing...

the pool on the hill.

a summer gathering place if i've ever seen one.

i love the side of our garage.

old and scruffy, yes.

full of character, yes.

the site of many photo projects.

the pups...

the hen and chicks.

further proof i'm morphing into

my great grandmother, reba.

plus they are easy to take care of.

my favorite.

our driveway.

not the easiest on the tires,

not the easiest to drive up in the snow...

or the easiet to mow.

but i walk it almost every afternoon with the pups

to get the mail.

even mentioning the word "mail"

sends the dogs in a frenzy.

apparently so do the words

"fail", "tail" and "whale"

as we found out today.

but i love the little break in the day.

a mini tradition of sorts.

i love the idea of mail.

there's so much possibility from day to day

(and sometimes treasures!).

i love the sun on my face

and the flex in my legs.

i love being engaged in the neighborhood.

our marshall sign.

silly, huh?

but i got it for paul a few weeks

before our wedding last year.

i got it at the pumpkin festival,

the same place he asked my mom permission to marry me.

AND

paul loves marshall football.

and i love paul.

and i love marshall, too...

because that's where we met :)

and now we're the boekells.

i promise here in a few weeks new work will be featured

and listed in the shop.

i've started saving (sorta) for supplies

to create my jewelry.

and i've taken new photos for some illustrations.

so, bear with me.

it won't always be me blabbing about myself.