On the street where we live

While Jim was visiting this weekend he took pictures of the house, the gardens and our general neighborhood. Jacksonville is a beautiful city to live in and Rick and I are fortunate to live in a historic district called Avondale. The neighborhood is architecturally diverse, dating to the 1920s. After having lived in a building across the street from the first railroad terminus in the country in Ellicott City, Maryland - a town dating back to the late 1700’s - a house built in 1924 that is considered historic kind of amuses me. Our particular home is an American style bungalow that Rick originally purchased for the wrap-around porch and the enormous live oak in the back yard. It took me a number of years to translate northern gardening to Florida gardening but both Grandmother and Mom instilled a love of flowers and gardening in me. Each year as I plant our gardens I think of theirs. A few photos follow of the house with some focus on the gardens. The hydrangea on the corner is over twenty-five years old.

There have been times when I went crazy planting the front gardens – one year planting 450 four-inch impatiens in an intricate pattern. While beautiful, I will never do that again. This year I planted borders of red and purple miniature pentas, multiple shades of geraniums with spreading pentas behind them.

(Note: Click any of the following photos for a larger view.)






Here are some photos that show our back yard.




Around the corner from our house are the shoppes of Avondale. The shoppes include six different restaurants including one of our favorites, the Fox, which is just an old-fashioned diner with wonderful food. If you’re not there in time on the weekends you’ll be in a line of 15-20 people waiting to get in.

Another is The Brick which has the closest to Maryland crab cakes that I have found in Jacksonville. The remaining shoppes are a mix that appeal to the ladies who lunch or those looking or something unique from a local specialty shop.




The St. John’s River is a few blocks from our home but and many of the streets have direct access to it. These shots were taken from Edgewood Avenue which is a gracious larger cross street with a park-like median. At the river’s edge you are able to see downtown Jacksonville.




Over the recent years downtown has experienced a bit of revitalization with a number of condo and apartment towers being built and a few shots of downtown are included. All of this is just to give you a sense of where we live.