it's a beautiful day in our neighborhood

we have the best neighbors. tonight we had dinner with the klutzes, and had a great outing. the best bit is that they're so willing to offer all sorts of advice (and helping hands) for our landscaping project for the front yard. we're talking tractor work, laying new sod, ripping out sidewalks, and consultation on where to get the cheapest dumpster (a hot commodity when doing landscaping or any house work, i'm finding).

we're hoping to recreate the rush cottage, the spot team engel stayed at on our first visit to new zealand. in order to recreate, i've been growing a lavender hedge for two years. so far, only one plant of 8 has died, and it's filled in quite nicely (about 3 feet tall now). next step is to rip out our sidewalk leading up to the house, and lay new sod across the entire yard, north to south. this will give us a perfect bocce-esque lawn and will alter the way guests enter the house -- coming up from the side of the house vs. straight away.

on top of the kind gestures of the klutzes, when we got home from our dinner, our other neighbor (an adorable, hotcha professional country singer) came out to chat with us. it was such a nice night to stand in the street, chatting with all the neighbors. it's precisely why i moved here: to have great neighbors.

this weekend we're off to look at flagstones and other rock to start pricing out our project. hopefully we can swing it, especially with such great advice from the neighbors.