In the previous thread I posted a picture of the view from the front of our house. You may have noticed the rather bare flower beds with huge weeds being the principal 'stars'.... That photo was taken during our first year in Spain, 4 years ago.
After a lot of weeding and digging out stones this spring the garden looked like this:

This dahlia was in bloom beginning of November!

I love the contrast between the rugged mountains, perfect for adventurous walks

and the symmetry of the olive trees.

Morning mist in the valley

In September, a gift from our neighbours: fresh figs. I added some Jamon Serrano (a dried ham), some extra virgin olive oil milled in our own village, a twist of black pepper .... divine. The next day I went to the nursery and bought a fig tree.

Thanks Lavenderlass, for restarting this thread. It is fun to share this with all of you!

you are killing me, Petra....

Oh Petra, must you really rub it in?

It rained the last couple of days, a lot!! Does that help? :-) ;-)

No, well, maybe a little :)

Seriously, Petra, those are beautiful views and lovely flowers. You've found a truly wonderful place and I'm very happy for you!

We still have snow, but it's only about 8 inches now...it's been melting a bit. It's supposed to snow again in a few days. If it does, I'll try to take a picture. Snow is beautiful...when you can sit inside the warm house...and enjoy it out the window! LOL

Oh Petra, I'm living vicariously!

I live in northwestern Alberta, Canada. We're about 35 minutes from the BC border and the start of the Alaska highway. The area we are in is called the Peace River Country and it is the northern-most grain growing region in North America. The natural foliage is deciduous forest mixed with some open plains. We're about a zone 2A-3, depending on micro-climates. We have very long summer days.
Summer solstice sees the sunset near midnight. We get a fair bit of snow most winters but we are near enough to the BC mountains that we get chinooks (a very warm west wind ) I've seen the temperature rise 35 degrees in less than a day.

Our front room window looks north and I can see down the hill and across the fields. We often see mirages of the banks of the Peace River.

Fall here involves harvesting. While my DH and I don't have a direct hand in our extended families farming operation, I do make harvest meals for 6-8 men (my brothers and hired men) My 94 year old Grandmother still makes the pies.

Our backyard (the perennial beds and shrubs in the back have filled in, this is 2 years old)

first day of grade 1 (backyard):

Our girls and our raised bed garden (root veggies are in their own garden) I can push the growing season by 3 weeks with raised beds.

Looking NW out our front window. This was taken at almost 11pm last summer, if you look NW, you look down the road, across farmland:

and one last pic of winter! This is the back/side of our house, taken 4 years ago (we don't start the reno until spring!)

BEAUTIFUL PICTURES EVERYONE!!!

I posted on "Where are you Part 1". I noticed a lot of wild life pics.
I live in the concrete jungle.....a little city about 22 miles south of Los Angeles.

I wanted to show you all my wildlife too! :)

In my kitchen, looking out the window when I'm washing dishes, I told you all in Part 1 that I say the customary "Bless You" when my neighbor is in her bedroom and sneezes.
I get to see all the cables and wires running into her bedroom....not only from Dish Network but she mans a CB radio station so I have the pleasure of seeing tall poles sticking out of her roof.
This is why I want a faux stained glass piece to hang from my kitchen window because not only do I see this but anyone sitting at my dining room table sees it too, through our large pass-through window. UGH

The door in my kitchen, looking out, most mornings I can see My Wildlife! lol

Not exactly a pretty deer laying in tall grass, is it. lol

This is why we bought our place in SW Florida. This is the view if we're on our living room balcony and look in one direction. The other views off the other balconies aren't too shabby either. We're blessed to have 4 balconies; one off the living room, one off the dining room, one off the master and one off the guest bedroom. We're in NY right now, but officially become snow birds for the first time at the end of the month. I can't wait!

Florida looks so warm...

I am here in New England just north of Boston
but clustered by trees.
~boxerpups

one of my boxer babies

So much fun seeing where everyone lives!!!

Petra, gorgeous views!

Boxermom, love your baby!! We were in Boston in April, hubby ran THE marathon, it was an amazing experience!

Mikomum, fellow Canuck here! New bruswick girl, hope to get out west some day!

I had posted some photos of our house in the other thread, here are some photos of the area, Southern New Brunswick, Canada, 20 minutes from the ocean.

This is the beginning of hill up to our house,,,it's 1.5 km all uphill to our house..was very rural when we moved there, has built up some but not terribly so. One kilometer to the left of the photo is a beautiful sandy beach and a ferry across the river.

{{!gwi}}

Hubby and I kayaking, this river is about a 3 minute drive from our house

{{!gwi}}

This is the main drag in our little town, approx pop 15,000. 20 minutes to the city to work. It's a great place to live! You can see the river in the distance.

{{!gwi}}

Since we are up so high on our little mountain we have great views from our windows, living room on left, kitchen/dining on right of photo

{{!gwi}}

I love this! Lavender lass - my daughter is jealous! We are in western NJ - horse country, very rural (yes, there is rural left in NJ - 10 miles to ShopRite for us!!). My daughter has been begging for a horse for a year now (she's 7). And mikomum - she has the same outfit AND wears puple glasses!! LOL

Here's our house...last winter, thankfully no snow yet!

and the view from the front door last Halloween...

Hey kngwd, your house is like mine. No wonder our kitchens are similar.

My husband went hot air ballooning with his company just north of Flemington, NJ. It was early in the morning and he said their pilot flew them down so low at one point they could look right into a skylight.

He said it was a good thing no one was in that room at the time because the skylight was right over the toilet and they had a perfect view of it!!

Great pictures everyone!

Amity- What is your wildlife...it's kind of cute :)

Kngwd- I'm posting this for your daughter. Horses have to be taken care of everyday...fed, watered, 'picked up after' and they take all your extra cash (LOL) but they are very cute and I'm sure she's going to love getting one...eventually.

And just so you know (to your daughter) they're very sweet and can love you very much...but they're still much bigger than you are and can step on you or kick you without meaning to...so you always have to be very careful around them. Always let them know that you're walking up to them and never approach them from the back...and never get a horse that is not nice...no matter how pretty that horse might be.

Now, enough lecture, and on with the pictures! Here's Chance, when he was a year old, with Baby Lucky and their mom, behind him. The boys are a few years older now, but still very cute, sweet and nice...and bigger! LOL

{{gwi:739585}}

Here's a couple of pictures of Baby Lucky with his mom (Mandy).

{{gwi:636888}}

{{gwi:636887}}

OMG - they are beautiful!! Daughter started with riding lessons last summer and LOVES it! Unfortunately in these parts it costs an arm and a leg - $45 a lesson is the cheapest I have found! It adds up quick so she has been forced to take a little break. Hopefully we can start her up again on it soon! It doesn't help living in an area where 1/2 her classmates do own their own horse!! I was shocked she even loved the grooming/cleaning aspect - had nice little chats the pony!

What a sweetie! Makes me miss my fox trotters.

oh boxerpups, love that doggie pic. They do become part of the family, don't they? Our greyhound, Gideon, is our 'token boy' and is such a joy (he's in the backyard pic above)

crafterbeth--I'd love to get out that way!We have so many friends from NB, NFLD and NS that have lived in Alberta at some point but have moved back home. I wish it wasn't so $$$ to fly across our own country. I tried ocean kayaking off Saltspring Island, BC and it was absolutely amazing. Totally jealous.

amity-LOL at your rooftop wildlife. A possum?

kngwrd--my daughter hasn't fallen for horses TOO badly yet. We did buy tickets on the children's horse at the local fair last year (I knew the lady who had raised him) I was both terrified and excited at the prospect. I used to tell my family that I didn't want a car when I was 16, I wanted a horse. That changed by the time I actually *was* 16. That's a funny coincidence about our girls having the same outfit and purple glasses. It's an amazing age, watching them get a grasp on the world around them.

cpartist--beautiful view! Ah, the life of a snowbird! My parents are leaving for their place in Palm Desert after Christmas and I want to sneak into their suitcase. With the reno this year we can't swing going down for our Vit D fix.

Two pictures; one of where we are now, in our cramped little FL yard, and the second one is where we will be soon. We have 7 acres waiting for us in upstate SC, and 2011 is the year we'll finally get started on it. The first picture is our entire back yard here. There's an herb garden in the center, and in the background is a bridge that goes over our garden pond, and goes.... nowhere! The property in SC has a nice winter view of the Blue Ridge mountains.

Petra, all I want to know is ... do you have a guest room? :-)

(P.S. I love Jamon Serrano and figs)

Jodi-

No, this is not my back yard. I wish it was. But it is only 3 hours away in Glacier National Park, Montana - it's called Goose Island. I took this picture in August. I live in Havre, Montana near the Canadian Border. It's very cold today with about a foot of snow.

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Hi Jodi, we have turned our 3rd bedroom into a library/office, so we always have to improvise when we have guests!

It's okay Petra I love to sleep on books. :-)