Yard Tour

I love our yard. There are so many plants, bushes, and trees that Fernando has lovingly cared for over the years. And the attention he gives everything really shows.

Let's take a look at some things that have been making an appearance.

We have lots of orchids, at least 40 plants throughout the yard. Some look a bit otherworldly, producing long spikes. Others produce lovely flowers.

This is one of my favorites. So dainty.

There are also a number of flowering bushes. Here are just a couple.

And the bougainvillea knocks my socks off every single time it blooms. 

Take a look at this aloe plant.

When Colleen gifted me with this, it fit in the palm of my hand with room to spare. I decided to plant it in front of David's workshop. It seems to like it there.

We also have a bunch of fruit trees, including oranges, grapefruit, avocado, custard apple, to name a few. There are also at least four different type of lime trees. These beauties are my absolute favorites.

The flash makes them look on the orange side, but they're really a lovely shade of yellow and very similar to key limes. Their smell is heavenly. When we get a bumper crop like this, we juice them and freeze the liquid in ice cube trays. This year, I also combined some of the juice with a simple syrup and froze that combo as well. Makes for a lovely kick in a plain bottle of water or unsweetened ice tea.

We're very excited to have recently come into possession of a lemon tree. If all goes well, we should have lemons this time next year. Believe it or not, lemons are scarce here. On those rare times they appear at the market, everyone grabs them up. Can't wait to have our own.

Now these next two pictures are things that aren't in our yard, but certainly nearby.

This is called a Flamboyant tree and it's in our neighbor's yard. Every time it blooms, it puts a big smile on my face. The red color of the flowers is so vibrant and provides a wonderful contrast to all the greenery that's around.

And last, but not least, there are these guys.

This sheep herd has been showing up in our other neighbor's yard on a pretty much daily basis for the last week. After munching their fill in the yard, they slowly mosey their way to another grazing area, sometimes across the lane from our house. In spite of driving the dogs absolutely bonkers, they are fun to look at.

Coming up: Look for a post from David describing what it took to install the new light in our master bath.