Saturday, July 19, 2008

Our Garden




Eric and I have been working at getting a garden going this year. Some parts look OK and have done well, other parts are kind of blah. When I had Lexi and Braeden here on Thursday the 18 of July while their Mommy and Daddy were moving, they and Caroline picked the peas and had a blast shelling and eating them. I think there were about 20 pods all together--not enough for me to worry about and I knew it would give them much pleasure to find, pick, shell and eat them. And it did!
Some of the tomatoes are affected by a virus, but not all.
We may get some fruit yet. I think the prettiest part are my purple cone flowers that grow by the back fence.

They have kind of taken over. And we just let the volunteer sunflowers grow where they came up. We're hoping they will turn into some of the giant ones (that's where the seeds came from in the first place--a big head I'd left out for the birds to eat last winter). The beets are looking good and I've thinned them twice, enjoying beet greens (tastes just like spinach). The beans are finally blooming . . .radishes actually did well this year, after a slow start. I wish I would have taken a picture of the bunches I got. They were so pretty. We gave them all away but about three. None of us like radishes (blecchhh!), but Mike's mother loves them. Let's see. . .oh! We may be getting a lot of squash over the next few weeks. Zucchini and yellow crookneck. MMMMmmm. We love those. We also planted a lot of potatoes around the edges just for fun. The dirt is so hard we won't be getting a very great crop, but we think they are fun. Cucumbers are growing in there, too, and a few carrots. Cauliflower and Broccoli, too! And pumpkins!! Yep, I guess we DO have bit of a garden this year ;-)

Pool Time!




















We went to Pine Valley for the afternoon Chadburn Reunion on the 19th, but after that, Eric, Seth, Caroline and I went to our Cousin's house to swim in their pool. They live in St. George and it was about 105 there. The pool was VERY refreshing!






After our swim, we drove by this little hawk (falcon?) cooling off in a sprinkler. We couldn't resist
taking his picture as he splashed about and tried drinking in some cool water. I told you it was
hot!

July 4th and Hayden


Four Generations:
Hayden, his Mom Katie, Katie's dad Mike, and Mike's Dad, John Liebhardt






Four Generations of mostly women: Berenice, Katie, Linda




Katie and Casey came to Cedar City for the Fourth of July. Casey's family had a fun reunion with many of his mother's family. We even were able to join them for dinner on the 5th. But the morning of the Fourth was when we all managed to get together for a few minutes and took these photos.

Wildflowers on the Fourth of July










Gail and Eric at Cedar Breaks National Monument, Utah. July 4, 2008

We looked at a different sort of fireworks on our July 4 holiday. We decided to drive up to Cedar Breaks National Monument and see the wildflowers. Mike and I took Gail and Eric. I took my camera. Gail took the following pictures. We think they are rather spectacular. We also took a little detour to the Bristlecone Pine trail at the summit of Cedar Mountain on the way home. I have had "Hike the Bristlecone Pine Trail" on my list of things to do before I die for quite a few years now. It just always seems like we are in a hurry to get somewhere, or the weather's not nice or something is not "just so," so I'd never taken the time to do it. It's s a very very short walk, probably measured in hundreds of yards, rather than miles. The overlook at the end of the trail is pretty, but I forgot to take pictures of that (the Zion overlook). And the weather was perfect on this particular day, the timing couldn't have been better. I did take LOTS more pictures than what I've posted here.
So, enjoy! Gail will be using her COPYRIGHTED photos to design and produce note cards. See them on her blog entry (glowormdesigns.blogspot.com) in days to come ;-)