Although our photographer certainly enjoyed outings to places like the Gold Country, the San Joaquin Delta, and Gladding McBean in Lincoln, it’s very clear she also spent plenty of time tending to her beautiful home garden. As a person who has never been bitten by the gardening bug (although every other sort of bug seems to zero in on me), I always feel grateful to neighbors who manage to add beauty and color to our street through their hard work, tending to these blooms.

In addition, I always feel that one of the great thing about living in an older, more established suburban neighborhood is the presence of mature trees, providing shade as well as beauty, producing oxygen, and providing homes for many types of wildlife. I don’t think I could bear to live in a brand new housing development with a wide open expanse of lawn and only a frail sapling or two that, with proper care, may grow into a decent-sized tree in 15 to 20 years! I don’t know where the album’s original owner lived, but this looks more like my kind of neighborhood.