A slice of our life - 30 years in the making

Today marks our 30th Wedding Anniversary. Anniversaries and birthdays always initiate a reflection on ones life. This is pretty much our day to day life after being together 30 years.

My budding photographer took these pictures of our yard after we prettied it up. Been awhile since I posted some personal home pictures. You are excused from the table, if you wish.

This is our very modest small backyard. When we got back from vacation the grass was at least a foot high and the weeds took over everything. We spent the day on Saturday mowing (2x each section), edging and weeding (and getting poison Sumac, argh!!).

I love our little acre (actually more like a quarter acre) but it is ours. After living in rentals 2/3rd's of our married life, we finally bought a house that we wanted to retire in. Four blocks from one of the largest lakes in New Jersey, we had dreams of buying a pontoon boat and fishing and boating our days away. In the last 10 years, New Jersey went wacko with the taxes. Now, retirement here is not an option but for the next 6-7 years we will continue to mow, edge and weed our little place in the sun.

We spend the summer nights eating al fresco on a patio that extends off the kitchen.



This is the back right side of our house. This picture was taken before digital cameras and the only difference between then and now is a new roof, a new screen door and that new Weber grill that is set into a table with shelves, a coal storage bin and a propane starter. I love that grill and have owned only a Weber since my first apartment over 30 years ago.

When we moved in, there were no fences separating the yards, now each new neighbor on both sides has put up a fence. It seems to be important to mark your territory with fences nowadays.

Growing up we had hedges to separate the yards and they were really only there to stop the kids from roaming when small or you built a fence if you had a pool and it was mandatory. Neither neighbor has a small child or a pool. Over the last 5 years I have watched everyone cut down their trees because it is too much work to remove the leaves and they never replace them with other very important greenery. As you can see by these pics, we have left the bushes and trees as they were when we moved in, and have no plans for removing them in the near future. There is a small wall that marks the property line at the back and the cats will sit there in the morning, happily sunning themselves.



Meet Bobby, our tabby from over the wall. Every day he shows up at my back door for a pet and to see if our cats have left him crumbs in their breakfast dish. His eyes are as green as grass and he's a real sweetie. For some reason whenever all three are on the patio, a roll-fest begins.

So cute.

That's about it. I design and custom paint platters and plates, The Nudge goes to work each day to buy raw materials for a Swedish company that manufactures in North Central New Jersey. We have two and a half cats, a groundhog named Mary, a family of doves that nests in our oak tree and an occasional deer that will wander into our yard and eat my parsley. I guess we are sliding ever so slowly into those retirement years without even realizing it.

Once a typical summer lake rental, now winterized for year round living, nothing too special, nothing grandiose, just a little house on a little street in a little borough of North-Western New Jersey that we proudly call home.

I guess I missed this place being away for two weeks and I promise I won't say that sentence that has been immortalized by Dorothy, but yes, I agree...............