You've heard the saying, "Go to your happy place." The attached picture is my happy place. When I look at this picture of part of my backyard I understand what the word "serenity" means.

I spend half of my life working in a very noisy environment on board a tugboat, with the smell of diesel vapors as my constant companion.

When I first get home from the boat, and walk out on my deck which overlooks our backyard garden, the clean crisp smell of "green" is intoxicating, and the silence of our wooded lot is truly deafening.

There's nothing like that first morning home after being away for 3 weeks. I open the sliding door with one hand as I hold a cup of fresh brewed coffee in the other and walk out into just a little bit of heaven.