Simply Belle

On Halloween’s day, my husband and I decided to abandon the tricker treaters, left the house in total darkness, and headed up to the place called Monument Valley, located just south of Utah border and Arizona, near the four corners area, where Utah, Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico touch.

Monument Valley boasts of beautiful rock formations that were slowly revealed through erosion some 50 million years ago, producing one of the most majestic and photographed landscapes on earth. It’s where many motion pictures were filmed, like Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Once Upon a Time in the West, Marlboro commercials, to name a few.

We didn’t get to explore the valley because the tour cost a little too much, and we didn’t feel like spending our hard-earned money on pricey tour. Yes, there might have been more to see down the valley, but that can wait until later when we go back there again.

This time, I would like to share with you, my blogger friends and readers, the Monument Valley.

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In our neck of the woods, persimmon trees are unknown, as well as figs. But, that doesn’t stop my husband from planting them despite the warnings of the experts that they wouldn’t grow here. He is stubborn, you know, but in a good way. He likes planting fruits trees. Every place we moved in, the first thing he did was surround our yard with fruit trees. I asked him why, he doesn’t have an answer. He simply likes to do it. If he likes a certain variety of tree and our nursery doesn’tcarry it, he doesn’t mind traveling 90 miles just to get that tree. No one could stop him. On our trip to Seattle last year, he was so adamant on visiting a nursery out in the woods that he thought carry the best variety of fig tree. The kids and I had to go along with him because his mind was already made up and there was nothing we could do to stop him. It took us forever to get there. I had been hinting him to turn around as we had traveled quite a ways already and had been driving in circles, still there was no nursery in sight. But, he wouldn’t give up until he found the place, and he did.

Three years ago, my husband stopped at our local nursery to get a fig tree but they were all out. He happened to notice persimmon trees. Since we enjoy persimmon fruits immensely, he bought two trees. He planted them both – one survived and the other died. He went back to the nursery one day for something else, and also inquired about the persimmon tree. The guy said that the trees that my husband bought were sent to his yard by mistake because they don’t thrive in our area as it freezes here during winter.

So, the next spring, a bunch of shoots came up from the roots of presumably dead tree. He it let grow as a bush instead of a tree. He watered it regularly. Last year, it had few fruits on it but nothing to be thrilled about. But this year, it was loaded and so was the other one that remained as a tree. Recently, we noticed that the other persimmon tree looks like it is going die although there are some shoots coming out from below – exactly what happened with the tree below. Probably, next year it will grow up as a bush when the main tree dies. From this experience, we learned that trees which prefer the mild Mediterranean climate like figs and persimmons survive as bushes in our type of climate while apple, pear, and peach trees do fine in the form of a tree.

My husband – an avid orchardist

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Trips don’t have to cost much. Actually, it is more fun sleeping in a tent or in the back of the truck with a canopy. You don’t need a laptop or television to keep you entertained. Instead, you can just gaze at the sky and enjoy its beauty and fascination. It is so peaceful and relaxing watching the stars twinkle in the night sky like fireflies.

On this recent trip, we brought air mattress, quilts, pillows, water, toiletries, and some snacks. Our bed was quite comfortable and pretty spacious for the two of us. I don’t know about my husband but I slept well. It got so cold early in the morning that I had to get up and shut the back of the truck and the windows partially. We covered ourselves with thick quilt which made it nice and toasty the rest of the morning.

The only problem was we had to walk a little ways to avail of the bathroom. I avoided drinking too much at night so I didn’t have to make an early morning trip to Wal-Mart and it did the trick. What is so nice about Wal-Mart is they don’t mind people camping out in their parking lots as long as they stay over to the side and out of the way. And depending on the season, they open 24 hours a day.

Our truck parked behind Wal-Mart

Visitor center in Lake Powell

The next three pictures down were taken on the way to Flagstaff.

Native American tent known as “teepee.”

Beautiful red rock scenery to Lake Powell.

Aspen tree on the way to Flagstaff from Grand Canyon

Beautiful butterfly in Grand Canyon

Browsing deer in Grand Canyon

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I meant to submit my entry to PMN before the deadline but I missed it again for the second time. I received an email early this morning from Dine reminding me of the deadline but I was getting ready for work so there was no way I could make it. Thanks Dine! Anyway, I thought I would just post my entry here in my blog.

I had this plant sitting on my kitchen counter for quite a while now. When I bought it, it had plenty of red little flowers and thick silky leaves. It was so beautiful that I just had to take it home. I thought it would die right away after several months like any other house plants that I have had but lo and behold, this particular one is still alive and looking good. I hope to see flowers by next spring.

Last week, I went out in the garden and took pictures of the butterflies but only this kind came out half decent.

Bartlett Pear- the best eating pear.

Our fruit trees (left to right) persimmon tree, apricot tree, and apple tree.

Persimmons- my favorite autumn fruits

Persimmons-up close

Apples

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View from my living room. If only the electric post was not in a way, view would have been better.

Our fig trees are doing well this year as evident by the fruits all over its branches.

This is the pear tree that is void of fruits this year.

Another tree, plum tree, that was caught by early frost. This tree hasn’t produced at all and am hoping it will someday otherwise…

This is the garden that my husband was trying to cultivate. I will join him as soon as the danger of early morning frost is over. I have the seeds ready like ampalaya, opo, etc, that I ordered through catalog. Hopefully, they will thrive in our area.

Since I will be pressed for time this week, I might as well take advantage of my Sunday to post as many posts as I could. We will be short-handed at work this week so no day off for me for sure. But then again, I might actually have a day off. Let’ see.

The moment I got up this morning, I noticed how pleasant the morning was. I looked through window, and the scenes outside looked so inviting. So, still in my pajama, I came out with my camera. Ohhh, the weather was nice and comfortable. I was hoping I would be able to capture some hummingbirds hovering the feeder in our front porch but no luck. Summer time though, they come in droves and in different species. Fun to watch and they are so cute and just beautiful!

Our trees are doing well although some of them have no trace of fruits at all this year. The frost might have gotten the buds earlier. Fortunately, they bloomed at a different time so some of them, like the bartlett pear and few apple trees, were spared. But the asian pear, my favorite tree, was one of the unlucky ones. Oh well…

My husband has been trying to start a garden this year but some creatures have been nipping the seedlings and it can be frustrating. I told him to cover it with cheesecloth until they are big enough. Let’s see if this will do the trick.

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