The back side of my house in photos

For some reason Elliot doesn't care for the backyard.  When we first got him we took him out the back to do his business.  He ran after balls along our back fence.  He tried to dig his way under the fence.  He chased lizards.  But then we introduced him to the front yard and he has never wanted to go back since then.  When we do take him out back he acts like what little grass we have out there is poisonous or something.  He walks on our little patio out the door and rounds the corner walking only on these tiles.

This is our orange tree out back.  It is an orange tree that blooms in March, unlike the other trees that bloom in November, but for the past two years it hasn't given us many oranges.  Right now it doesn't look like we will even get enough for one pitcher of orange juice.

Our oranges use to be nice big colorful fruit, but not this year.  We obviously have some type of fungus that is destroying our crop, but so far none of us care enough to do anything about it.  I'm not really into the wildlife outdoors and this fruit does bring out the Florida citrus rats so perhaps no oranges this year is a good thing.  My neighbors tree that blooms in November didn't produce enough fruit this year either so it's probably an epidemic.

I've been trying to get Elliot out back this week so every time I worked in the Steelers room I opened the back door.  He made his way on the stones to this little corner where he plopped down in the dirt.  After I had bathed him the day before.  Just like one of my kids.

However, the sun was a tad too hot for him to do that too long and he ended up sleeping under the pool furniture in the screened in porch.  For him to be outside without someone with him is unusual, but I hope he will continue to venture outside his comfort zone and do this more often.

Every year about this time I think I need to do some decorating around my pool.  One year I bought some flowers and palm trees and had them placed throughout the screened in closure, but I would forget to water them and eventually they all died.  Another time I had various decorative animals sitting around the pool, but they either faded or broke.  Usually I do nothing.  Perhaps I should troll the Internet for ideas.  Or invite my sister-in-law down for the month to do the work for me!