We Bought a Zoo

At least that is what the kids think.

Our home is up against a forest and it comes with an abundance wildlife that we love watching: deer, birds in many varieties, and squirrels. We all stand at the big window in the back of our house and watch them in the mornings and evenings. Emily couldn’t resist getting as close as she could to the deer in our backyard and they were not scare of her in the least. We think it is because our neighbors two doors down feed the whole group of 12 deer every morning.

Georgia is introducing us to all sorts of new kinds of nature: black birds that honk, wild apricots with the most brilliant purple flowers, lizards (they leap!), and we have barely scratched the surface on all the new bugs, spiders, ants, and wasps. We love going out as a family in the evening and watching on the deck. The flowers around our deck attract butterflies and we saw our first swallowtail a few days ago.

The people that lived here before us planted so many brilliant plants and we are making new discoveries every single day. Peach trees, blueberry bushes, herbs, tomato plants, peppers, rose bushes, lemon tree, lime tree, olive tree. It is a dream come true that we are excited to continue building upon.

Today we discovered lavender in our front yard. The kids spent a lot of time picking it and we tied it into little satchels to dry. Nathan put a few stems under his pillow. Emily insisted on hanging them in her closet – dream come true for my plant loving girl – and our entire upstairs is starting to smell of lavender.