I'm Home!

Finally! I'm completely unpacked, the house is totally clean, and I even took care of the outside yesterday. It's official: It's home. I'm home.

After the movies on Saturday, I spent more time driving around, this time completing the north side of the loop, heading out to Bartlett to exchange one of those rugs; one of them had a snag. Afterwards, I drove through Cordova, one of the other major 'burbs. (we have Bartlett, Cordova, Germantown, and Collierville as primary suburbs to the east.) From there, I headed back by way of Shelby Farms---the largest urban park! I hear it's five times the size of Central Park! I didn't have my directions, so I didn't find the off-leash area. And thus I'm still confused as to whether the area is actually fenced in.

After all that driving, I made it home for a quiet evening in. Sunday, though, was tons of work! I picked up lots of flowers, getting those in pots for the patios. I also blew off and washed the patios and drive (it's a very long drive!) and got a few flowers tucked into the window box. I finally pulled out the wreath for my front door, dusted off my welcome mat and got it in place, and laid several bags of mulch in the front bed.

Ah---the yard. It's so hard! My tendency is to want to till, put in beds, and plant! But it's a rental! Finally, I don't have to spend time in the yard, and more importantly, money. But it really needs it. Sigh. I finally decided some mulch would help dramatically without too much expense, and I made a plan to wait for two weeks to decide on planting anything else.

As for the yard itself, well, the better phrase is the lack thereof. Memphis is going through quite a drought, and there's very little grass---or anything else---growing in the front. The back has enough for basic coverage, but there's a rather large bare spot in one area. Still, without a lot of grass, I don't have to mow too much! (Actually, I've not had to mow at all in the three weeks I've been here!) And if I don't plant anything, well, I don't have to spend money on watering! I might like this part of it. :-)

And so, that's that. I'm fully in!

Other things over the weekend--Howard and I went on several walks, and of course, he loved it! We're just a ten-minute walk to the Memphis Zoo and the Brooks Museum of Art. The zoo and the museum are located in Overton Park. We found a large field where lots of people let their dogs off leash, but for any of you who know Howard, while I don't fear he wouldn't come back, he'd run way too far off before doing so. And the park is, after all, right in the middle of a city. Still, the park is HUGE! (342 acres!) We have only barely begun to scratch the surface.

History note, courtesy Wikipedia:

Founded in 1906, Overton park contains one of the oldest forests in Tennessee. In the 1960s and 1970s it was the subject of much controversy when 26 of its 342 acres were slated to be demolished in order to build Interstate Highway 40 through it to make it easier for suburban commuters to get to downtown. However, many residents of midtown formed a group known as "Citizens to Preserve Overton Park" and challenged the plan in court. Ultimately, the United States Supreme Court ruled in their favor in the landmark case Citizens to Preserve Overton Park v. Volpe, 401 U.S. 402 (1971).

Overton Park also includes the famous Shell Theatre, where Elvis Presley gave his first paid concert. Other bands that have played at the Shell include The Allman Brothers Band, The Grateful Dead, and Neil Diamond.

The Overton Park Zoo began in 1906, when a resident of Memphis couldn't keep his pet black bear in his backyard. He had it put in a pen in the park, which attracted many people, inspiring the want for more animals on display. The Overton Park Zoo is now one of the largest in the United States, attracting 700,000 visitors per year. The zoo houses two pandas, who are local celebrities, as well as three polar bears, brought in to the Northwest Passage exhibition which opened in March 2006.

Overton Park is an urban park likened to Central Park in New York City. It further contains the Old Forest Arboretum of Overton Park, a natural arboretum with labeled trees.

Guess Howard and I need to find that arboretum and learn more about these great trees!