Our current garden

This is a beautiful panoramic taken by my husband of our back garden - the part that is soon to change in a major way. We spent all weekend clearing leaf litter and dirt from around all the trees so that (hopefully) later this week we will have a visit from some arborists with chainsaws and see 15 trees removed.
We love trees, we love the shade, the blossom, the activities of the squirrels and birds.
However we have also got a lot more trees that are staying where they are, a pool that we have put a lot I money into and is only usable for 2 months of the year (the trees give so much shade that to get in at other times of year means to freeze!), a pool guy who is fed up of the excessive amount of leaves in the pool every time the Santa Anna winds blow, the gardeners (actually myself, my husband, and both sets of grandparents!) who are fed up of sweeping up a billion leaves from the yard before they fall in the pool, and well you get the picture. Oh and did I mention we are in a fire zone so we get checked on how well we do leaf clearance every spring?!
Anyway we are very nervous about this major work but also super excited about what it may allow us to do both with the pool this summer and with the huge area of garden that will be flattened post tree and stump removal.