This is a picture of our front yard in Arlington, Virginia right before we moved in the fall of 1996. I liked living in the city because you felt free to do any weird old thing to your yard without the neighbors worrying about how it would affect property values. Note, for example, how we painted the sidewalk blue (with the neighbor kids' help). If you look closely, you can also see how I painted the sides of the stairs leading up to the front door blue and green. It really looked great.
I like our house here, too, but I don't feel as free to exercise my creative muse in the yard here because everything is so conventional and same. What's true of the city would be true of the country, too, of course. It's just these dastardly suburbs that I find so disadvantageous in just about every way I can think of.

I hope to put up photos of my current garden in Herndon, Virginia soon but have not yet taken them. Meanwhile, click here to see a couple of shots taken inside the house on 11th Street. last updated: July 1998