I can recognize some things, but not all. And, the sheer unsystematic garden style we’ve inherited befuddles me. For instance, why a lone orange tulip?

Or the dark purple one?

Really. We only have one of each. And, what about this poor lone pink tulip in the daffodil grave? (Two weeks ago this section of the wall was crowded with gorgeous giant yellow daffys.)

We have 5 of these white tulips tinged with purple.

We have lots of red tulips. I can hear them saying, don’t bother us. We’re sunning ourselves.

The red ones have turned out to be the hardiest of them all, surviving our regular 40 miles an hour winds from sitting on this ridge. (The house I can’t say is faring as well, because I swear one day a wall is going to cave.)

But, every few days something new pops up – most of which I cannot identify. So, I could use your help.

For instance, what is this bush? I love it. It’s so white and fluffy. (Mystery #1)

Any idea what it is? Here’s a close up of the flowers.

And, what about this ground cover garden item? (Mystery #2) It is pervasive, winding around everything.

Oh, and what about this bush? (Mystery #3)

Here’s a close-up of the flower. It makes me think of a hibiscus.

Our shed is surrounded by all kinds of stuff.

Our azaleas are about to burst. We have lots of them. Pink.

Peach.

White and purple.

Oh, and the pansies. I hear you can’t kill them, that they survive anything. I hope so. We’re thinking of renaming our place Windy Ridge.

Ooo, and look at this lovely bush. Know its name? (Mystery #4)

Oh, and let’s not forget the trees. Do you know what this is? (Mystery #5)

The redbuds, dogwoods and fruit trees are going to town this year.

Some of the trees in the woods, however, are downright scary.

Brothers Grimm anyone?

And, do you know what this bush is? It’s has tiny little white bell-like flowers all over it. (Mystery #6)

How about this? (Mystery #7) I think things shoot out of it at some point. I know this because I cut a bunch of dead stick-like things out of it a month ago. (Was that bad? I never know what to cut or prune. Or, when.)

I love some of the groundcover that is blooming. Some of it is really well done.

Of course, some things have obviously gotten out of hand. These poor tulips are about to be taken over by what I believe is a beauty bush. That spiky, dead looking bush should be full of purple berries in the fall. (Mystery #8)

What about this bush? (Mystery #9)

Oh, and for the piece de la resistance, can you get any more random than this sucker? (Mystery #10)

It’s a succulent, obviously. But, why?

There is so much more, but that should give you some sense of the suprises we’re been enjoying. If we weren’t doing some serious renovations soon that will likely change the footprint of the house, I’d be all over redoing the landscape. But, in the meantime I’m just enjoying the casual, unexpected blooming. I can tell the people before us really loved this land and were having fun with it. I hope we do justice to their groundwork. (But, that spiky thing above has got to go.)

Rule number one for anyone trying to sell real estate. Tell everyone where you live.

Hmmm. Such a conundrum.

Well, paying two mortgages is no fun. We need to sell this sucker. And, honestly, if I was in the market for 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths where you would never, ever have to mow a blade of grass (but have some and let the townhouse association do it), and be across the street from a Harris Teeter, Target, Bonefish Grill, and Sweetfrogs, yet nestled in some woods, well, heck I’d buy it.

Wait. I did.

Welcome to the townhouse that you know someone wants to buy. It is the buying season, right?

We have moved into our new house. This means you can have our old place. Yeah for you! Or, a friend!

About our townhouse. First, let’s get the mourning out right away. So far I really, really, really miss 2 things I left behind in said townhouse.

First, there is this:

Husband once declared I was having an affair with that faucet. Close. It pulls out, so you can spray all around. A button on the faucet head changes it from a steady stream to a broken stream, too. It’s downright sexy. The left, deeper side of the sink can hold a 13 x 9 inch pan. Sigh.

The second thing I miss? The Refrigerator. It. Is. To. Die. For.

I also kinda miss the sunny yellow-ness of our old place.

Those walls are pristine clean. We hung maybe 5 pictures throughout the entire townhouse.

Our master bathroom was pretty sweet. (The fact I had it to myself was kind of nice.)

But, it’s really built for two.

I could go on and on, showing you empty rooms. But, you get the picture. Not everything is yellow, by the way. There are other colors, like a soft green in the upstairs (full) bath.

The backyard terrace is fabu, too.

This was my reading corner.

You want it. I know you do.

Here is the full MLS listing: http://www.mycaar.com/(fp1qbr553h3uubau3i2iqt55)/propertyDetails.aspx?ID=059A3B122C2744F39B03DB98AACBE9A9

Meet the wasp.

We keep putting him outside. But, he (or his cousins) keep finding their way in. They just like to walk around. So far I haven’t stepped on one. And, they haven’t come after me. Yet.

Meet the lady bug ( or one of them anyway).

I try hard not to kill lady bugs as they are considered one of the “good guys” in the insect world. This one appears to be questioning my existence, however. So, my days might be numbered.

Then, of course, there are the stinkbugs. I took about a dozen pictures of them, as they wandered around the house like they owned the place.

Then, I thought better of posting them. After all, they are u-g-l-y. And, I am acutely aware that I lost most of you at the wasp picture above. So, why push my luck? (This was taken on our coffee table and he was dangerously close to my glass of wine.)

I now scream call out for Husband every time I see one. It is his job to dispose of them — outside. Reason #347 to get married: Stinkbug removal.

So far, I haven’t stepped on any of our house intruders guests in the middle of the night. At least I don’t think I have. There is no telling. All I know is they believe this is their house. I know this because they don’t move when I come near. Rather, they just look up at me as if I have interrupted their serenity.

Great. Toto, I don’t think we are in suburbia anymore.

What a nice message. Then, I looked a little closer.

Adult Briefs. X-large, too. Oh, and look. With self-adhesive fastener for those folks on the go.

I thought it was nice that it was in Spanish, too.

As I strolled around the townhouse one last time, assessing our material kingdom, I noticed other things, too. Like just how many wine glasses we have.

Oh, but wait, there’s more.

There are several more boxes than these pictures show. But, I didn’t want to bore you.

Clearly my friend who packed this for me was watching out for me. Nicely marked for emergencies.

The boxes made it to the new house. Now, if I can only find someplace to put the contents of these boxes in to just six cabinets. Hmmm….

But, I think we can conquer this move. We will prevail! And, by the looks of our first sunset, I think the Universe might agree.

See this?

This is our basement in the new house. Ya know, the one we actually haven’t moved INTO yet?

This is our new basement BEFORE the movers have arrived to move everything in. The above picture shows you stuff we moved by the car load in the past few months. We have only now begun to pack up what we live with.

How did we get to this point?

You see it all started with the fact that I’m a late bloomer bride. Getting married older almost guarantees you come with your own house full of stuff.

Husband had a townhouse all to himself, too. When we got married, he also had 2 teenage sons who lived with him enough that it necessitated that we buy ANOTHER townhouse, around the corner. Between my need for massive closet space and their love of whatever-the-name-of-shooting-killing-maiming video games, we needed some mutual, separate space. So, for the last 6 years we have had two townhouses. One joint. The other now abandoned by said teenagers and used as a storage unit for most of his stuff.

Yes, Husband and I never really completely merged our stuff. But, now that we have a larger house, we get to actually introduce his stuff to my stuff.

Everyone said to purge. We did. What you see above (and what you don’t see that hasn’t been moved yet), is stuff that we can’t bear to part with. I mean who throws out or gives away their teddy bears and perfectly good linens and photo albums and complete set of sushi dishes (you never know when someone from Japan might drop in). Now I wish the stuff had never entered my life at all. Then I wouldn’t have grown attached.

I honestly could throw 75 dinner parties in the next 75 days and never have to reuse a glass or dish, and could probably whip up a new theme with linens, candles, vases and other tchotchkes without repeating myself. Even professional caterers and party planners probably couldn’t say that. And, I love it all. I mean, someday I’ll throw that Moroccan-themed party and need those stained glass tea lights (packed God knows where now).

See this sign? Husband left it in the middle of one particularly large stack of boxes (all his, I might add).

I think he’s trying to tell us something. I think he’s right.

But, I’m off to pack our joint townhouse now. (We already have packed up the other.) I just hope we have enough bubble wrap. Below is all that is left after securing Husband’s kitchen.