Home for Memorial Day!

So, I played hooky from work and took the long Memorial Day holiday to go home to the Youngstown area to visit my family and see my hometown. I haven't been home since well before Thanksgiving, so it was nice to get out of Columbus and calm down for awhile. It was such beautiful weather and was such a lovely visit, that I am seriously considering looking for a little home and moving back there.

I was able to take a few pictures and I thought I would share them. The above one is the view from our front porch taken with my cell phone, believe it or not. It was hard to get a good shot of the flag, since the wind was blowing. However I think the sun on the flag and the gorgeous blue sky reflected my mood and my visit perfectly.

I have no idea why the date is wrong on my pictures yet again! Oh well, don't we have the most amazing and lush trees? This is from the back yard.

This is another tree from behind my neighbor's house. They are so tall and strong. I grew up with these trees, they are like family.

This is a shot of my mother's frog fountain. By the end of the day, the wind had blown so many whirligigs from the neighbor's maple tree into it, that I had to scoop them all out and then add more water. I should have stepped back so that you could see her entire set-up including a wheelbarrow filled with plants and flowers, but I was trying to be artsy.

This is part of our front yard. The tree you see to the left of the shot has an interesting story. We went on vacation when I was in junior high, and while we were gone our asshole neighbors (who have recently moved, yippee!!) called the city and had our huge tree that was growing there cut down. They claimed it was old and dying, but we knew that they just didn't want to rake leaves, pick up branches after a storm, etc. Shortly after we came back, my dad planted a tiny little spindly tree in it's place. We didn't think it would last, but many years later this teenager is shooting high up to the sky!

This is a close up of my mother's magnolia tree. We have about 3 of them on our property. Magnolia's are not my mother's favorite flower (though she does like them), and I actually tend to associate magnolia tree's with my grandmother as she had many and loved them. I am sure that is why mom keeps them around.

This is me trying to be artsy again. Since purple is my favorite color, I love this tree. We have a large one right next to our house on the side where my bedroom is. I remember when it would storm or the wind would blow hard I could lay in bed at night and listen to the tree scrape against the house. It was such a calm and familiar sound it would lull me to sleep. I think it is interesting to see how much of my history and childhood can be told through the plants and the trees.

This is an OLD picture I took of my house many years ago, but I thought I would add it as some things never really change.