Forty-six years of living

This is the Florida home where my parents lived for the last 46 years.  My mother passed away a month ago and my father eighteen months before.  They both lived long lives, my dad to the age of 104 and my mom to 96 years of age.  They were both very lucky to have lived and died in the home they loved so much.  This is the only house my parents owned in this country & I lived there for the first five years before I got married.  This is the home my girls grew up visiting their grandparents when they were kids.  This is also the home where I first discovered that gardening was a thing and I really enjoyed it.

I am now in the process of undoing 46 years of living. I always knew that this moment was going to be difficult.  Going through my parents' possessions and deciding what to do with them is very hard.  This week I had a realtor friend come to evaluate the property and to give me some selling pointers.  One of the things he suggested was to spruce up the garden.  I can do that; one last time for my parents since they loved the garden as much as the house.

 This house was built in 1957 & during all this time it has had only two owners, the original owners, and my parents.  Not much has changed to the outside of the house since 1957. The inside and the neighborhood has seen many changes.  I hope the new owners will take good care of her.    

 There used to be a big avocado tree there before a hurricane took care of it.

 The big tree is a Sapodilla tree (Nispero in Spanish) This tree was my parents' pride and joy.  They loved the fruits and the shade from this tree.

I helped my Dad build this gazebo when we first moved in.  After living for 10 years in New England he loved the idea of having a gazebo in the garden.

October is here, changes are in the air

October brings changes to South Florida, the mornings are cooler and the days have less humidity.  Perfect weather for gardening.  

Pictures from the garden

One of my favorite bromeliad flowers,

I have orchids planted on all my trees, sometimes the flowers are a surprise.

A sign of autumn in my garden, the leaves on the ground from my Plumeria tree.

My star fruit tree is full of flowers, you can see the little fruits growing

My garden cat on the prowl, looking for lizards. 

Dinner time at the DragonFly garden

The first Painted Bunting arrived for the winter season.  This is a female, last year we had three males and four females at the feeder all winter long.