backyard manicure (or pedi?)

right before thanksgiving we gave the backyard a serious manicure. it was looking pretty drab and had again just turned into a giant dirt pile. 

so we went about raking all the leaves and sean cut down a few trees that were in the way.

we wanted to put down rye seed because we know it grows fast enough to make our yard look nice in time for sean's family that visited over thanksgiving, and it would buy us some time until we decided what to really do. we also decided that we wanted to rock some areas that get a lot of doggie and human traffic. and came up with this:

the first picture is a lot nicer since the grass started growing through the rocks! and leaves continue to fall. but it gives you a good idea of what it looks like now.