We live in a pretty big city but when you come to our house you almost forget where you are. I love that our little house is nestled amidst the trees, deer run across our yard, and there is a HUGE park across the street which allows the “countryside” fantasy to be unscathed.

We have had such lovely weather which has meant afternoons spent out in the yard. When the swing set becomes a bit mundane, the kids head down the driveway to Mr. Meyer’s yard. It is soooo much cooler than ours. Mr. Meyers has real woods behind his house and stacks of firewood he chopped himself, and a stack of bricks he plans to line the flower garden with, and a pile of compost that reeks to high heavens, and a deck, gates to crawl under, and, and, and. Seriously, you would think his driveway is Disneyland.

Here are some photos I snagged this week on our excursion:

Our landlord is a piece of work and we have traveled quite a road in our two years here. The first months were so hard. He didn’t trust us and was pretty grumpy, really. As time has passed the relationship has softened to the point where we walk across the yard to speak to each other instead of pretending no one is there. (It was ungodly, I admit it.)

Last week, while Honey was out of town, four of Bubba’s cars were discovered inside an air vent. The vent covers are antiques. With big holes. Perfect for slipping cars into. Honey had taken away all of Bub’s cars as punishment the night before and it seems Bubba had a sudden memory flash that led him to the vent. I didn’t want to bother Mr. Meyers with something so (seemingly) simple, and wasn’t about to wait for Honey to come home when I can work a screwdriver pretty well. (Hear the pride??) Turns out the antique air vent is rigged in some strange way and when I loosen the screw something clanged into the vent and the cover was now coming off/out of the wall. Drat. So, when I saw Mr. Meyers at the mailbox later, I asked him to come look at it.

He gave me the “it’s 70 years old and irreplaceable” speech and added that it would take him over an hour to fix it. I told him I wasn’t sure I believed that but felt plenty silly and would appreciate his help and forgiveness.

We went out to run errands the next morning and came home to find Mr. Meyers laying on the kitchen floor. Little plopped down beside him and began asking questions. When it became obvious he wasn’t going to answer them all (I don’t think he could hear her), she went and got her computer so she could “do my work beside Mr. Meyers.)

He was ignoring my camera and starting to get up when I told him not to dare move another inch and sit right down so I could get a picture of him with my Little. That smile he’s giving is GENUINE. Yeah, we’ve won him over.