Happy Anniversary

Kitesurfers at Alameda's Crown Beach - Memorial Day Weekend

Kitesurfers at Alameda's Crown Beach - Memorial Day Weekend

I heard it through the grapevine

Front/side yard...California poppies and an unnamed purple flower

Front/side yard

This palm tree is in a planter box...it will need to be dug up and relocated (or given away to a palm tree lover) as it will eventually hit the deck if it continues to grow.

Plum tree

Back/side yard - all of the groundcover, the wood sorrel clover, has gone dormant in the past few weeks which is much different than what it looked like in mid-winter (clover that was a foot high...you couldn't see the ground!)

Lemon tree

A view from my deck, looking down.  The avocado tree is shedding it's leaves..they get put in the GREEN trash every two weekends or so

Here is a new planter I picked up...the hues in it pick up the turquoise coloring of the house

Baby grapes!

It's been one year since I put an offer on my house!  I sit and hear the quail birds flapping their wings outside on a cold morning in northern California!  It has been nice to see the past 365 days to see how the greenery changes in my yard.  The wood sorrel clover starts growing in the fall and it becomes dormant in the spring.  I'm raking up the leftovers.  The avocado tree leaves are shedding now, in spring, so there are lots of brown leaves to clean up after on the weekends.  

The hot tub got drained (I figured that one out, yeah!) and now I will step in it to clean it out and fill it up with fresh water....I was curious to see if I could go in a COLD hot tub on a hot summer day and use it as a small pool without heating it up!  That is my next experiment.

Good news, the plum tree is producing...the plums are green.  The squirrels seem to love this, as there are several new droppings each day.  (My neighbor cut the braches of this tree last year so I wasn't sure how much growth there would be).  My fruit picker should reach the plums.  The plums were in such abundance last summer that they made a sticky mess all over the concrete.  I am hoping to eat at least one of these plums this year before the squirrels get to them!

The grapes which start to grow now are really teeny tiny now and will be in bloom in fall.  I need to tack them up so that they don't sit on the ground...last year the possums and raccoons got to them.

I have been gardening!  I am using the existing planter box (made with railroad ties) and I had to pull out many a weed of the wood sorrel clover to plant some colorful perennials.  I have been checking on them.  I think I'm much better at planting green plants versus flowering plants...but I'm not giving up.

I feel very lucky to reside in Alameda.  Home prices have dropped for sure, but my house price is comparable with other houses of the same size.  2 car garages in Alameda are very rare.  My neighbor across the street has to park tandem on their 1 car driveway (no garage) as did several of my neighbors where I rented a few blocks away.  My house started as the garage for the house next to mine in the 1930's and then they must have build my house up...which is why I live on the second story!  I like looking out at the rooftops and trees, I feel like I'm in a tree house of sorts.  

Thank goodness someone who resided here had a good green thumb...the foliage is great.  

Happy one year anniversary!  

Enjoy this video of the kitesurfer's on Alameda's Crown Beach Memorial Day weekend...it was a nice, windy day for kitesurfing.

  

Here is a video of the outside of the house

Here is another video of the outside of the house