This is our home in Huntsville, Alabama. I took this picture shortly after we returned from Arizona a couple weeks ago. Sorry about the early morning sun reflecting into your eyes. There are several interesting changes in the landscape around the house. If you haven't already done so, roll your mouse over the picture. What pops up is a similar picture taken in April, 8 years ago.

The older picture has a wonderful crop of Azaleas producing salmon colored blooms under the Southern Pine trees in our front yard. Over the last several years, the Azaleas began to die off. They were hit with some kind of blight. They just looked shabby and something had to be done. Our first thought was to remove about half of them and plant flowers. You can click here to see that result. (Aside: apparently everything got voted out of the garden!)

This year I convinced Nancy that we should just sod the entire area. She agreed, obviously. So now we have grass where we once had Azalea bushes.

There are two other things worth noting. The first is the Crape Myrtle on the right side of the house. You CAN see it in the earlier picture. You just won't believe it's the same plant. It is. In the late 90s I decided it wasn't going to live and wanted to remove it. I had already cut it back all the way to the ground. But Nancy said it would grow if we just left it alone. So we did, and it did. It was a small bush when I took the picture in 2003, and now it extends over the house!

Lastly, look at the forest behind our house. You can just see the tops of the trees in the earlier picture. In the current picture, the trees are well above the house. It's a year-round struggle to keep the forest from intruding into our back yard. The pine trees in our front yard are probably 75 to 80 feet high, but it seems like they've always been that big.

Oh yes, the house is a slightly darker color.