I was desultorily straightening up my desk the other day when I came across an envelope that contains photos we took of this place the day we closed on it. There are also a bunch of shots from inside as well, but that hasn’t changed much, not like the outside has. I am amazed.
We have lived here 13 years, entering our 14th year of residency. We took possession of this place in the first week of April, 1996. Below, a series of pairings, sometimes triplings, of views from certain vantage points. Each series contains a photo that shows the place as it was when we took possession of it. The following shots were taken today, in the soft rain that is falling. The same exact angle cannot be used in some cases, since we built the privacy fence around the back yard. So I have done the best I can to replicate the original shot, with additional views past fences along the same sort of trajectory.
This series shows what a dedicated pair of people can accomplish (with help from their son when he was available) in thirteen years. The only thing that we did not build ourselves is the root cellar/storm shelter.
It shows something else. Notice how different the stage of development is on all the grass and trees. The original pictures were taken on April 10. Today is April 19. If there were no other developments or eveidence at all, this would make me suspicious that something is happening to our climate.
Without further ado, this is the front, looking north:
If you step back off the driveway into the street, and turn slightly to your right (east), this is the one acre field adjacent to the house where we established the labyrinth, the savanna, the vineyard, and the orchard.
Turn slightly north:
If you walk up the lawn and stand sort of under the power pole that has the transformer on it, this is how the east side of the house looks from there.
Not a great comparison shot until you walk through the gate.
This next shot was taken from the east side of the house looking towards the barn.
Originally there was a decrepit patio where our pergola is now.
Now we walk out to those three tall pines that are in the corner back there. Turn around and look at the back corner of the house.
You may have noticed a couple of missing trees. The big one was a hollow maple that we had removed after we’d lived here 7 or 8 years. It was getting ready to fall on the house and pergola. The little forked tree was a struggling apple. It did not get enough sun and succumbed to borers fairly early on.
Turn around in the same spot and look over the fence towards the barn.
You can not do this now, due to the privacy fence. The pond and bird garden are just on the other side of it. So I went out into the wild area and tried to get a shot of how the place looks from there right now.
Take a moment, look at the first view of the barn and gather in that bare grass field between the original three plank fence and the barn. Imagine you have walked out into the middle of that spot, and now look back where you just came from and there is the pond.
It’s really full today because we have been enjoying steady rain. By the way, this is the way the pond looked right after it was built and first landscaped in 1997.
Now that’s a great view because it includes the area that now sports the stroll garden, which we began work on in September of 2007. Notice that back in 1997 that area was just bare lawn.
Now, turn around and walk along that garden fence you can just see behind all the shrubs at the pond, and peek through the gate.
Hey, walk right in there and take a look around. Things are really starting to grow.
A couple of other additions — the root cellar/storm shelter just to the east of the barn.
Directly to the south of the root cellar is the sauna/dressing room complex. Note the bonfire circle in the foreground, the compost work area to the right of it. The back of the garden shed that showed up in the earlier photos looking out towards the barn is in this shot also.
Okay. That’s enough bragging for now.
In other news, some of the gift plants that came in a while ago are showing signs of life. The blueberries that I bought with Christmas money my big sis gave us this year are leafing out.
I particularly like this angle on this part of the Stroll Garden. There is the row of blueberries stretching away from the foreground towards the fence; behind them is one of the pawpaw trees our niece provided for us. Unfortunately, these trees are such infants you cannot see them unless you are right on top of them. Trust me, they are there. Notice that the skull of the longhorn cow that one of my clients gave me is in the background. Since this whole row of stuff came from people in Texas, I love the resonance of that little piece of decor.
Well. That about does it for today, folks. Come back again when I plan to feature the beauties of the Stroll Garden and the Vegetable Patch.
Thanks for dropping by. Hope you enjoyed your walk around the history of the Havens.
Oh, I wish I had that tremendous view! And a barn! I just love barns.
Brenda
WOW! You two (three!) have done an astonishing job – what a difference.
And I see what you mean about the evidence of things developing earlier now than in 1996. Rather worrying as a trend, if pretty to look at.
Imagine what it will look like in another 10 years when all the new beds are mature…
I love before & after shots. Thanks for sharing. You’ve made an awesome transformation there.
Wow…I love what you’ve done and you have me thinking now….hmm….
Thanks for that bit of history — we’ve had our house for only two years and your demonstration of the kind of changes that are possible is inspirational!
A fun tour – thanks! And that has to be the coolest root cellar I’ve ever seen: beautiful as well as practical.
-Nan
That root cellar would be a lot cooler if it actually stayed as cool as it ought to in the summer. It needs about two more feet of dirt on top of it and an entrance that doesn’t face south. Hindsight is 20-20, it is not going to get rotated now. But the gardens are pretty neat, aren’t they?