Mostly Naked Trees

Spring is starting to settle in here in South Texas, there is sweet evidence blooming in my yard. I realized that doing one whole blog post dedicated to the garden is a lot. I am going to do going to do a couple of different updates on the garden. Today I will show you our lovely trees, who are hoping for a wetter year than the one we had last year. Hey did you know that the only year on record that can compete with our horrible 2011 weather is back in 1787. Can you imagine how bad it is when the researchers have to look back 224 to find a simular year. We had a total of 17 inches of rain last year and 10 inches all happened in November/December timeframe. I am hoping that this summer is better. Before I start showing you the pictures of the trees I have to tell you that we lost both of our pear trees. I guess pear trees planted down here are just looking for a reason to die. On the bright side at least we found a great nursery who can and will answer our questions honestly. That is a relief!

Okay so this is next to a tree but my mint is so Happy!

This is four different kinds of apples. Each branch is a different kind. I can not wait to take a bite out of one very Delicious apple. We are picking off the flowers when the petals fall off so that the tree will focus it's energy on growing roots. So I will not get any apples until maybe next year. Roots, shoots, and then fruit.

This is a Pakistan Mulberry tree. There is a very good chance we will get a couple berries this year and a lot next year.

This naked tree is a Super Berry Black Mulberry. It is supposed to be the fastest growing tree fruit tree. We will see. This tree can live for hundreds of years. This little tree will produce food for 200 years. I guess that makes up for the $80 dollars we invested in it. Short term I can't wait to see leaves.

This a Chocolate Persimmon. It blends into the fence, leaves will make this stick look more like a tree. Oh spring I am ready for you!

Fuyu Persimmon. It is short but I have high hopes that it will grow a couple of feet this year.

This is our friendly orange tree. He says hello and stays green for me. Maybe it is because we wrap him in Christmas lights during the winter. It gets cold here for about a minute.

Pomegranate. These are new leaves. Oh yes, I am not the only one ready for spring.

Lemon Eucalyptus. She is a heavy sleeper but when she wakes up she will grow. Last year she grew 3 feet. That is how we found out this small herb was a tree.

Jujube tree. Rob says it is like a small date tree. All I know is it has thorns. 

This is one out four Olive trees.

This is two out of four Olive Trees. I hope they grow fast because right now they are barely two feet tall.

Celeste Fig. Check out that top leaf. I think it looks like a butterfly.

This is a branch off of the Brown Turkey Fig that wanted to be a tree.

This is the sister branch of the Brown Turkey Fig. It has a little frost damage but it is still strong.

This is the Orignal Brown Turkey Fig.

Finally The Pecan tree. This is the only tree that looks like a tree. It is seven feet tall and is just itching to grow. Or maybe that is me. I think this tree is going to steal the show.

Those are our fruit trees. I like to watch them grow and see the changes that they make and dream of fruit pie, sweet jellies. and bowls of homegrown fruit. We do have two oak trees and a crape mertle that are not featured. They look like trees and I don't want to give the other trees a complex.

I hope that your day is filled with Wonder, Love, and Laughter. Be well my friends.

March Photo of the Day

I am so in! I wanted to do February's photo of the day but with a down computer it was not a practical to do. I am excited to be playing along. I also saw another one that is for foodies as you know I have a slight food obsession so I might try to do both or mix and match. It all depends on my mood. Either way I will only post one blog on the photo challenge a day. I still want to do my spring update. I am really excited because the trees are blooming, asparagus is growing, and my husband has added several new additions to our modest garden.

Here are the photo Challenges that I was talking about.

http://www.fatmumslim.com.au/2012/02/march-photo-day.html

I included both links under the pictures of the challenges. 

http://www.purplecarrotkc.com/2012/02/march-photo-day-food-edition.html

I hope that your day is blessed with love and laughter! Be well my friends

Ash Wednesday

Last night we attended our first non Sunday Mass and our first Ash Wednesday. I had planned on taking pictures of the kids after Mass but it turns out the minute you tell your kids that you can not touch your forehead they will use any means to scratch that itch. By the end of Mass the ashes were all over my husband. We went up and had the ashes put in on our foreheads, some ashes looked like smudges and others looked like perfect crosses. We are told "Remember, Man is dust, and unto dust you shall return". According to http://www.catholic.org, "Ashes are a symbol of penance made sacramental by the blessing of the Church, and they help us develop a spirit of humility and sacrifice". I had to look it up so that I would kind of understand a little better. What I do know is it is the start of Lent, and lent is a time of reflection and fasting. As you know our family is giving up meat for lent, in addition I am giving up alcohol and adding more prayer to my daily life. I found a great little prayer project that I am doing with the boys. You can find the free download here. http://faith.thatresourcesite.com/modules/PDdownloads/singlefile.php?cid=77&lid=914 The premise is to say a decade of the rosary everyday for someone else. I know that this is a small offering but I think it is a good project for myself and my children. I want them to grow in our religion and in their faith. Maybe it will help us all. I hope it does.

Here is a prayer for today from http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/Lent/Daily-prayers-00.html

Lord,
Let everything I do this day and in this season of Lent
come from you, be inspired by you.

I long to be closer to you.
Help me to remember that nothing is important in my life
unless it glorifies you in some way.

It's so easy to get caught up in the day to day of my life and keep saying,
"Tomorrow, I will spend more time in prayer,"
but now my longing meets your love and I want to do it now.
Help me to rely on you for help.

The prayer asks you that I reach perfection.
Please, Lord, remind me that "perfection"
isn't the crazy, "successful" way I try to live my life,
but a perfection of my most authentic, real self.
My "perfection" might be holding my many flaws in my open hands,
asking you to help me accept them.

Heal me, Lord, and help me to find you in the darkness of my life.
Let me reach out in this darkness and feel your hand and love there to guide me

 

Amen

 

I really think that this prayer is perfect for me in this moment and I hope that in some small way it helps you.

 

I hope your day is filled with Love and Laughter. Be well my friends.

 

 

The next step

We finally replaced my poor computer with a new one, but not before I discovered that the temperamental laptop would suddenly shut off while I was working on class work, or researching my paper. This last week has been filled with panic attacks and a lot of tears. I had to write a paper on the age old question, "If a tree falls in a forest and there is no one around does it make a sound?". I chose this topic, I chose to do this because it would be funny, it would be ironic, and I wanted to be challenged. After researching this topic and writing a six pager on the subject. I have discovered that sometimes I am as dumb as I look/sound. The truth is it is a boring topic that is extremely challenging to write. I am not a philosopher and I never will be. What did I decide the answer to the question would be? Thanks for asking. My finale conclusion based on all the overly educated philosophers, and many scientific papers I read it is impossible to prove one way or another. Luckily for me the class is over next Sunday so this the last time I will ever bring the subject up. Now I am free to move forward with my life.

Today I found out when first confession is scheduled. March 6 is the day I go confess thirty years worth of sinning. I am quite frankly a little nervous. I have done some sinning, as we all have. It feels heavy to carry around. Maybe even through the first time is scary I will feel better, more forgiven. As if I can have a fresh start. My husband is relieved that he needs to be baptized and this will wash him clean of all of his sins. I wish I too could do this but it is what it is. I think I am ready for the sacrament. I will let you know how it goes (no not my sins.).

I am excited to do my garden update soon. Spring is in the air and so are a few green leaves and flowers. I love discovering signs of spring after winter. I know I live in Texas so winter is short lived but it seems like winter was short lived around the country. I have a dear friend in Michigan turn her soil for a spring garden. Then again she just a snow. I do not know but I am still excited. So if the sun is shinning tomorrow I am going to start taking pictures of the garden in the sunshine. Try to enjoy the lovely weather before the summer heat causes me to forget how nice February is.

I hope that your week is filled with lovely weather, Love and Laughter. Be well my friends.

Philosophy Bites

Officially my computer is no longer in working condition. In fact I have to replace it. I am sharing my husbands temperamental laptop which occasionally gets to hot and shuts down randomly. He has been home for the last eight days so doing school work has been fun, considering he is also in college and was studying for his next rank test. He is taking the test right now, I hope he is doing better than he thinks he was going to do. I am taking a Philosophy class, I was so excited to take this class when I started. I was filled with hope that I could learn a new way to look at the world. In truth 30% of my grade is based on weekly tests. Every week I am assigned at least six chapters, 3 articles, 3 podcast, youtube videos, and several power point lecture notes, the quiz only has 10 questions and they could be on anything that was assigned. I am not good at testing. I can write a paper that clearly shows that I read and understood the material. When I am taking a quiz I second guess myself, I change answers, I generally freak out a little, and it is starting to show. I think I am going to squeak by with a B despite by best effort. It is disappointing. At least now I know I am not a philosopher and I do not have to take another philosophy class.

On another note, I have Jamie Oliver's Meals in Minutes and we are loving the recipes of course. In this book he puts the meals together on the same page starting with the Main dish all the way to the desert. I still spend about 30-45 minutes making these meals but it is nice to have everything go together. I recommend this cookbook if you are in the market for a new one. The other day I realized that I talk about how much I totally love Jamie Oliver and I told my husband that I don't mean the person, (I don't know him and as far as I know he is happily married with four kids. He talks about them in his books.) but as the chef who loves to share his recipes. He laughed at me and told me he never thought anything of it. Yes friends, I am a bit of a nut case. 

I hope that your week is filled with Love and Laughter. Be well my friends.

Bad news travels in threes

My computer is dieing a slow and very painful death. We knew it last year but my husband managed to reset the computer to the factory settings. Life went on with out interruption. Yesterday my desktop refused to start. My heart began to race frantically because I have school work due by Sunday. I have all of my pictures saved on that computer, all of the extra school work for the kids, and well all that random stuff that I wanted to keep safe. Panic. You know that saying that bad things happens in threes? Well I got a speeding ticket yesterday while going down a hill for two blocks before a stop sign. Today my computer is rebelling. I hope that there isn't a third and final thing lurking around here.

Well the best thing to do is to turn it around. At least I get a new computer mine is almost six years old. The flowers are blooming, the trees are starting to bud, and God is good. I just need to find my rose colored glasses and remind myself that I have a good life and I am lucky enough to be surrounded by the people who love me.

I hope your week is going better than mine is, that your weekend is filled with Love and Laughter. Be well my friends.

Texas in February

Recently, while my friends up north are dealing with snow I discovered a new love for Texas in February. My roses are blooming on three out of ten of my bushes. It is exciting to see something so beautiful in the winter months. I know this lovely weather has a time stamp on it and soon we will be having hot and dry summer from April through October. I took some pictures for you, so that you can have fresh flowers too.

I think this is called Easy Living.

It is an easy laid back rose. Ready to lighten the mood anytime.

This bee wanted to be in the picture.

He was very busy. He makes it seem like spring.

When we bought this rose we thought it was white.

Turns out to be pink.

As it unfolds the delicate fragrance floats around the room.

I love this rose.

I wish I could tell you that I won't post another blog on these roses but there is a good chance that I will. I hope you enjoyed your roses today. I would send you a whole bouquet if I could, just to see you smile.

I hope that your day is filled with love and laughter. Be well my friends.