Casa Tipton-Kelly Garden Tour August 2014

By popular demand, here is the complete video tour of the floral extravaganza that is Casa Tipton-Kelly.  Actually, one blogger suggested that I post such a video but you know me, I jump on any opportunity to show off our wonderful home here on the coastal plain of southern Delaware.

We live on a lot that is just under an acre.  We are surrounded on both sides by wonderful neighbors and across the street by another wonderful neighbor.  He live in a development called Covington Chase, a grouping of thirty-seven houses with 3/4 acre lots.  We purchased one of the bigger lots that is bordered by a farm field in the back and our aforementioned fantastic neighbors on either side.  I purposely was looking for a lot that did not border houses in the back.  Bill and I need that privacy in back of our house.  

Casa Tipton-Kelly August 2014

We moved here in November of 2006.  We had the house built from scratch.  We are the only ones who have lived in this house.  We also built out house in Pennsylvania from scratch, on a 6.875 lot.  We couldn't quite afford a "lot" that big here in Washington D.C.'s summertime capital, AKA "Gayberry" because of the large lesbian and gay man couple population.  Lots of us Old Gays down here folks.  

So enjoy the tour while I go and take a shower.  It's hot and humid this morning, a typical August day here on the Delmarva peninsula surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean on the east and the Chesapeake bay on the left.  We may be uncomfortable sometimes in these temperatures folks but the vegetation and flowers love it!  We do too.  Bill often sits on the back deck and just soaks in the colors and sounds of our wonderful, living back yard.  

Enjoy!

How Birds Beat the Heat

This is how the birds beat the heat in my backyard.  I took this video with my iPhone this morning from my bedroom window right after I got up (even before I shaved)!  I had to be VERY careful not to spook the birds with movement at my bedroom window while taking this video.  Their eyesight is very good.

This is what gives me GREAT pleasure, providing a backyard sanctuary for wildlife.  This unusually hot weather also affect our critter friends as much if not more than it does us.  Birds cannot sweat thus when the weather is this hot, they literally open their beaks and pant.  I am so thankful that I can provide some respite and even save some of our feathered friends.  Lord knows they have helped me this year because I don't have ANY Japanese beetles chewing away at my knockout rose bushes or even the crepe myrtle trees, both of which you see are right outside my bedroom window.

Excuse me now while I go out and change the water again in the three birdbaths and five saucers that I have out in my planter oval.  I think the birds understand what I'm doing for them because they're in those birdbaths before I even make it back into the house.