This begins the sixth week that we’ve been in the new house. Today we spent several hours with Hugo, our gardener/landscaper, at a huge nursery in Galt, riding up and down the rows picking out plants we want. We got a huge new tree, with leaves turning reddish, to replace the sorry looking whatever it is that’s plonked in our front yard. (Each house gets two trees, a wispy maple and a sorry whatever). Hugo suggested replaces the latter as it’s (a) ugly and (b) will grow a huge root system that will burble above the lawn one day. The new tree will solve that AND will give our house some height, as we’re between two two-stories. We also got a Japanese maple to go by the front door and some lavender and achillea and jasmine and camellia and hydrangea and mini-pomegranites and several different kinds of grasses and rosemary and…..a total of nineteen different kinds of growing things. All for the front yard. If this doesn’t make a difference, then nothing will. I am hoping that the landscaping will give me as much pleasure looking at the outside of the house as I now get from the inside.