Garden Party

I totally dig that Ricky Nelson pop gem "Garden Party." Totally singable. Totally hummable. Killer chorus. And a few cheesy lines (Yoko brought her walrus/There was magic in the air). It's all good.

Our backyard was one of seven spots on the annual Noe Valley Garden tour. So we had quite a few people traipsing around our yard during a five-hour period. Not surprisingly, most of the visitors were avid gardeners. On the other hand, Monika and I are non-gardeners -- we do just enough to keep the yard looking decent. But since the backyard was finished, we have indeed been getting a fair amount of use out of it.

We managed to steal away from our place for an hour and half to check out the other gardens on the tour. They were all pretty darn impressive in their own way. However, I'd have to say that our backyard was the most practical (incorporating the fact that we've got a young 'un) and thought-out.

One of the neat things about San Francisco (and I imagine other densely populated cities) is that the front of a dwelling might appear completely unexceptional; but, unbeknownst to the general public, the backyard could be completely stunning. In the rough-and-tumble big city, there are hundreds if not thousands of secret worlds -- serene, peaceful, and calm.