all greened up...

geta loada the size of them crepe myrtles. Yeowza!
I was so worried about them because they were not flowering. Now they are in full bud. Maybe the huge ones just take longer. Lets not make fun of them because they are slow bloomers. They obviously need our love and support.




Here again is the front of the house. Just showing you the shade. Lovely in the Texas heat!









This is the back yard. More shade. It is a mystery how we have such good grass in all this shade. Had to clean out the beds along the back fence...(or should I say had to pay for someone else to clean out the beds)...poison ivy...YUK!
Lemme tell you a little story about our poison ivy.
One Saturday I got brave and suited up to go poison ivy pullin. I had on two shirts (one long sleeved buttoned up completely lest a sneaky ivy strand try and rub some poison oil on my unsuspecting wrists. Under the buttoned cuffs I had long kitchen gloves pulled up high on my arms. Over the kitchen gloves were my garden gloves. I was all ready!
Thought I was gonna die. I pulled, and pulled, and pulled. Just when I thought I had it all in one section I would give a final tug on some teeny little sprig and three feet of vine would come with it. I would grab that vine and follow it back under the english ivy and unearth more, and more, and MORE. Oh my goodness does not even begin to cover it.
I am not a cussin woman but I gotta tell you that I was cursing that stuff. Genuinely cursing it. Telling it to die. Die! and never come back. Hope it worked.
Anyway...after all my hard work I figured out that the only way to get it all was to empty the entire bed. I tried that for a few hours...got a few feet cleared. Then called in the professional. He worked 4 days. WOW did he do a good job. I would have been fighting that stuff for years.
I realize that it is still going to be a battle. Evidently it is some tenacious stuff. But at least I feel like I have a good clean start! YEHAW!









Here is one of the Japanese maples. See me smiling?:-) There is another one over on the side. Gotta send in my brave knight (Sir Kendall the magnificent) to hack back the 40 year old hollys that are presently holding her hostage.












You thought I was kidding when I said we had huge pecan trees. That, folks, is a HUGE pecan tree. It is a huge ANY kind of tree. Kinda gives me shivers when I think of it loaded with pecans.
Hope they dont drop all at once. Those kids surely have their work cut out for them!! he he