The Back Yard is Everything

Missed a couple of "photo November" days there...  Currently, my entire TINY house is turned upside down because we're trying to cover the HIDEOUS linoleum floor in the family room with something less than ugly.  So furniture and chotchkes are scattered and piled every which way to make room to work.  I HATE this kind of mess, so I spend as little time in here--and so, at the laptop--as possible.

This morning I hollowed out a workspace for myself that keeps me out of the major part of the mess, so I'm happy enough to sit and clack away for a few minutes.  One major bonus is that my temporary seat is right in front of the patio doors, so I have a continuous showing of "kitty tv" just a few yards from my left elbow.  

Under these conditions, it seemed appropriate to post a back yard bird picture...so here it is. A red-headed sapsucker (a kind of cute little woodpecker) feasting on whatever he could pick out of the bark of my apple tree one autumn morning. 

The construction mess to my immediate right represents the frustrating process of trying to pound this tiny outdated house into an indoor space that meets our needs (aesthetically AND practically.)

The green space to my left, teeming with birds, squirrels...LIFE...represents the precise reason I chose this crappy little problematic seventies ranch home.

My indoor spaces absolutely HAVE to have large and obvious connections to my outdoor spaces.  I HAVE to have lots of glass and natural light.  I don't think I could live in a place where the passage between indoors and outdoors would consist of long hallways, solid doors or long flights of stairs.

It's true.  I chose this house because of the yard.  

And I think I chose well.