I cannot possibly express how wonderful it is to have a backyard after years and years of living in a 5th floor walkup with the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway outside my bedroom window.

I love New York, but I also love the smell of frangapani just after sunset, the silvery color of weathered wooden shacks, the heavily fruiting mango tree home to a colony of flying foxes (aka HUGE BATS) and iced coffee on the porch.