doug's garden tour, pt 1

herb garden: cilantro, sage, rosemary, and thyme. basil, lime basil, chives. strawberrries.

peas.

tomatoes and peas.

potatoes of many colors. and my hand and camera.

frosted seed pods from my weed patch

death to morning glories...

i believe they have another name, but they are definitely cursed around our house. mallory picked these. and wanted me to put in water. dandlelions fine, morning glories are another story. (but i thought they were pretty grouped up like this...i am a confused soul.)

another note, my mom sent this thought by email.

from GM Jerrard:

There are things that all men know are true on their face, things that require no explanation and no justification....We know, for example, that kindness is good and that cruelty is bad. There are other things that we learn from our own experience, from trial and error, truths that affect how we treat others. Moral truths.

There are scientific truths, tried and tested formulas that are true--at least for the moment--but which may be replaced with something else tomorrow. Researchers go to great length using the scientific method to eliminate error and to prove their hypotheses in an attempt to get at the truth. Through experimentation and trial and error, they try to discover truth. These are operational truths--assumptions and conclusions that are true to a 95% level of confidence with some possibility of error, give or take 5 percent. We use them as long as they are useful or until they are replaced by "newer"--and more accurate--truths.

Finally, there are revealed truths, specific knowledge given to man from a higher source. Sometimes they come as "the dew from heaven distilling," or as a still, small, even inaudible voice. Often, they come in a flash as an instant understanding of a concept inarticulated. On rare occasions, truth comes as a booming voice from heaven or in a vision brighter than the noonday sun. "The spirit enlighteneth every man through the world, that hearkeneth to the voice of the Spsirit."

Revealed truth dawns upon us when we are obedient...As we are obedient, God confirms to us that our actions are correct, and we are blessed with greater understanding. We call this testimony...

In other words, faith is essential to learning and recognizing truth. It is the essential first step.

Obedience brings more light and knowledge as a blessing to the obedient. Conversely, sin chases away the Spirit and our minds are darkened.

One of the reasons we came to this world is to learn to distinguish between the various shades of gray.

"When a man is getting better, he understands more and more clearly the evil that is still in him. When a man is getting worse, he understands his own badness less and less. A moderately bad man knows he is not very good; a thoroughly bad man thinks he is all right. This is common sense, really. You understand sleep when you are awake, and not while you are sleeping. You can see mistakes in arithmetic when your mind is working properly. While you are making them, you cannot see them. You can understand the nature of drunkenness when you are sober, not when you are drunk. Good people know about both good and evil. Bad people know about neither." CS Lewis

"Evil may not be referred to God for its origin. He is not its creator; it is one of those independent existences that is uncreate and stands in the catagory of qualities of eternal things...evil exists in the balance of natural forces...It is also the background of good, the incentive to good, and the trial of good, without which good could not be...No virtue could exist without its corresponding evil...In a world without evil-if such a world be really conceivable-all men would have perfect health, perfect intelligence and perfect morale. No one could gain or impart information, each one's cup of knowledge being full. The temperature would forever stand at 70 degrees, both heat and cold being evil. A world without evil would be as toil without exertion, as light without darkness, as a battle with no antagonist. It would be a world without meaning." BH Roberts.

smelling the flowers.

we visited my sister in beautiful washington. where they can grow more beautiful plants than in idaho. such is the life when you live in a desert. sigh.

frozen seed pods

 

 

 

noticed these in our front garden this morning. they used to be forget me nots in warmer weather.

only in idaho...

does it go from highs in the 80s to highs in the 30s in the space of a week. plus snow.

my daisy bush covered.

my tomatoes covered. sigh.

my still alive anenome covered.

not that i am complaining, i love snow, especially when there are big flakes like there were today. i just would have liked my green tomatoes to turn red before snowfall. oh well.

peach eating tree rats

 

dirty rotten squirrels have been getting into my garden. grrr.

my anenome

 

that may or may not survive me.

some fruits of our garden.

mmm....i think my favorite thing in the whole world is a home grown tomato (even more than chips and salsa. i know, it surprises me, too). leaves store bought tomatoes in the dust. even when they have an ugly crack in them.

and i learned another new thing from my dad this year. i guess if you plant zucchini and squash by each other, they cross pollinate. so my zucchini has been a little yellower than normal, and my squash is a little greener than normal. ain't genetics fun? this makes me want to go back in time and watch Mendel.

a working vacation

this is what the significant other decided to do for his vacation. and hopefully we will no longer have a grub eatten, patch ridden backyard. here's hoping.

the kids enjoyed watching the work. isaac sat a long time in his chair.

this is doug's leveler. quite ingenious. though i am glad i didn't have to pull it.

tomatoes!

mallory finally has some red tomatoes she can pick! and man, have they been good.

though one does have an owie.

dirt.

now this never appealed to mallory. but you should have heard the howling when i took him out of there.

isaac is guarding the hole where a new japanese anemone is going. i give it two weeks before it joins the $14 stick in appearance.

notice the great shirt his grandma got him? i think i rule too :)

more pretty flowers from my dad's garden...

where are mine? you might wonder...they died or you have already seen them. i need to get seasonal rotation in my garden. though i do have red tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, and zucchini. i just haven't gotten pictures of them yet.