Dedicated to Ray Vincent

After Melanie's grandfather died suddenly at the beginning of July, I decided to go take some pictures of his final garden. He loved working outside, and he had a beautiful yard and garden. I wanted to take some pictures of it for posterity.

In doing so, I realized that I had never really spent much time in his yard at all. Whenver I was over at the house, I was always inside. The few times I went onto the back deck, I don't think I ever actually looked around, or walked around, the yard much.

In addition to numerous flowers and plants, he also grew vegetables and had peach trees and apple trees. I discovered that he also had a birdhouse that reminded me very much of the birdhouse my own grandfather had in his yard for many years.

I took about 100 pictures that day; here is a sampling of what I thought were the best ones.


This is the view from Ray's front porch, where he always sat. It was the last place he was seen alive before he died.



This is from one of his rose bushes. He had said to Melanie a few days before he died that he needed to get out to Bobbie's grave (his wife) to put a rose on it.



This is his rear fence, ivy covered, with grean bean plants growing in front of it.



A view of the rear deck.



A peach tree in the foreground, looking toward the deck.





Hungry?



This is a view of the birdhouse I was talking about, with a peach tree in the foreground.



A view from the deck, looking toward the rear corner of the yard.



The birdhouse, close-up, with two birds on it.



"And the daffodils look lovely today..." ("The Daffodil Lament", by The Cranberries)



This is taken from the corner of Joan and Gerald's house, looking across the street to Ray's front yard.



A birdhouse nestled within an apple tree.



This actually isn't of Ray's yard, but it's one of my favorite photos from that day. This was taken from Joan and Gerald's deck, looking across toward their neighbor's backyard (the barn is in their neighbor's backyard, the bench is in their yard).