we are slowly, but surely, turning our backyard into a haven. one day at a time we pull out the overgrown weeds, trimming them away from the neglected blooms of flowers hidden beneath extra foliage. they are becoming more vibrant as we give them room to grow. there is an abundance of beautiful plant life that has obviously been growing for years, but in more recent ones, weeds have stunted their growth. every week a new area surprises us with unexpected appearances of new color. it is becoming more private and sheltered as the beautiful things grow taller and taller, hemming in the edges of the greening lawn.

on saturday, we dug out some old pavers and the sod at the bottom of our back steps. we moved the grass over to the other side of the stoop and began leveling out the cleared area for bricks. we laid out a pleasing pattern for the worn out bricks passed on to us from my parents and our new patio took shape very quickly. it is special to have these bricks with worn-down edges and varying in shape and size from the perfect rectangles they used to be. they came from the front of our old shed in my family's backyard; i've walked over them in barefeet since i was little and now they have a new home with us. they look lovely and impressive, almost like they've been here forever. i'll have to post a photo if i can remember to take one in the daylight.

we ate dinner back there tonight. we put our little garden table in the middle of the yard in between two tiki torches and made hobo-packs on the bbq. grom sat with us and we ate by firelight and watched some fruit bats flitting around the tops of the neighbors' trees.