outside looking in

Although it's been quite mild so far this year, once winter kicks in there won't be too much opportunity to get out into the garden, so the view of it from inside of the house is much more important. There are three main windows that look out into the back yard, and I thought it would be good to show you what I get to look at for the next few months. First though, the windows get cleaned.

My wife walked in as I was taking these photos and remarked on the beautiful, clean windows. When I told her I only cleaned them because I was composing a blog post, she asked if I would be doing any posts about the floor or bathroom anytime soon.

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So, the view from my windows. Let's start with our only south-facing window: the kitchen.

The view here is now quite lush and green, since it contains one of my larger bamboos:

As well as a great view of my neighbor's beautiful magnolia:

I think I have a better view of the tree than they do, and it always looks good.

Before I planted the bamboo here, all I had to look at were perennials and herbs:

(Which actually look more interesting in this photo than they really are because of the colorful reflections on the window.)


The next window that I spend a lot of time at is in the living room:

Bamboo has again made this view more special, especially in the winter, as they will stay green (unless we get some really cold weather, in which case the leaves may turn partially or entirely brown).

This is also the only window from which you can see the stream, and I like to keep it running as long as possible, so there's usually plenty of bird activity. (I'll have to shut the stream down once temperatures remain below freezing for a few days -- probably early January but who knows this winter.)

You can also see a bit of the driveway from here...

...but the better view of that is from the bedroom window:

(click for much larger image)

Thanks to the bamboo another window surrounded by green all winter long (hopefully), and this is the only view from the house of the pond. I keep the binoculars handy so I can watch the birds bathing and drinking. Squirrels too -- drinking, not bathing. (I've got a little more cleanup to do on the driveway, but it's almost free of potted plants now!)

Although I never planned any part of the garden around what it would look like from the house, I appreciate the views that I've inadvertently created -- they will make the winter much more tolerable.

What kind of views do you have from your windows?

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