On the Ninth Day

No words needed, just watch and listen to the video.

 

Vote on Tuesday November 4th to take our country back!

My Grand and Glorious Garden (vote if you wish)

I went to the Tribune website today and found  that the Glorious Gardens contest is open for voting. I spent an hour rating photos, and came across only one picture of my garden.  If you go to vote, the pictures will appear randomly, and you have to rate each one from 1(lousy) through 10(fabulous,) before they let you go to the next picture.  None of the pictures are identified by owner. There are so many beautiful gardens it is hard to pick a  good one. Many of the photos are presented multiple times. My guess is that the winner will be amongst the first 50 photos presented because only entrants will have the patience to go through all of the photos. I’m not  sure if I saw all of the pictures. The website does not tell you how many pictures you have to review, or where you are in the process.

I learned alot about what kind of picture to present next year. It seems my idea of what they want, and what I gave  them are the opposite. I love close up flower photography, they look for overall views. Next year, I’ll rent a helicopter and hover over the yard to take a good photo.

Instead of voting for my garden at the Glorious Gardens website, vote by leaving a comment below. Give a rating  from 1 (lousy) to 10 (fabulous), or any number between. OOHs and AAHs will be appreciated. I’ve added a few new pictures below to base your rating on. Others are sprinkled throughout my posts, Vote for my Garden Please,  and on my Gardener page.

Monet Vision, Late Summer Garden

Vote for My Garden Please(Second Edition)

Lobelia

I have never enterred a contest before today. The Chicago Tribune is co-sponsoring  a contest called “Glorious Gardens,” with Home Depot.  An entrant is allowed to place five photos into the competition. I uploaded five.  Today was the deadline for doing so. Beginning tomorrow, June 27, 2009, you can go to the Chicago Tribune Website and vote for my garden.

(Edited 3 August 2009)—-I went tothe Tribune site today and found out that the glorious gardens contest is opn for voting. I spent an hour rating photos, and only came across one picture of my garden.  If you go to vote, the pictures will appear randomly and you have to give each one a rating from 1 through 10 to go to the next picture. There are so many beautiful gardens it is hard to pick a really good one. Many of the photos were presented multiple times.

(Edited….July 25, 2009—-I am sorry, but the Trib is not conducting a popular vote for the most glorious garden. I was wrong to ask you to vote. Sorry for any confusion this caused you.)

Since, I’m not a machine politician, I can only offer you my ‘thanks’ for voting. I’m proud of the garden and I love taking pictures at different times of the day. I call it the ‘Monet Vision.’  The goal is to create a horticultural scene of magnificent complimentary colors. I have a long way to go, but I’m on my way. Hopefully,  the image I see in my mind will be realized in the backyard. That is, if Bambi doesn’t decide to taste all of the new entries like he has been this year.

Simple Choice

My Flag Flies Everyday

My Flag Flies Everyday

My Flag Flies Everyday

My Flag Flies Everyday

We have a very simple choice ahead of us tomorrow. We vote for one of two philosophies. First we have to decide if we want Uncle Sam, or Uncle Obama to take care of us from cradle to grave. If we do, we are admitting we are unable to do so for ourselves. The second choice leaves us free to choose how we are to live, make a living, worship, and spend our money.

Its easy for me to make that choice. My parents taught me a lesson in self dependence. Both of them came to this country seeking a new life. They were sixteen and seventeen when they arrived with a single bag of belongings. They didn’t speak the language, they had about a fourth grade education, they were a thousand miles from the closest friend or relative. Somehow they managed to get to Chicago, meet each other, marry, have four kids, educate them in parochial schools, and retire. They didn’t have Uncle Sam to care for them cradel to grave, they had something better. They had their God given talents, and the motivation to live. They brushed aside the bigoted references to “Greenhorn, or Hunky. They had a desire to raise their kids to have a better life. They loved each other “for better or for worse.” They didn’t even think of divorce. They might have thought about  how to kill each other once in awhile, but never divorce. If they were alive today, they would vote Republican for the first time in their lives. Why? Because the Republican philosophy of small government aligns with the way they lived.

Mom and Dad taught us to be self sufficient. They advised us to own land, because “if you have land you will never starve.”  As I write this, I am dreaming about the vegetable garden I will plant in 2009, to sustain us in the coming financial crisis. That is, if I can still afford to pay my mortgage and I still live here. 

The choice is easy, vote for someone to take care of you. Or vote for the liberty to care for yourself. Remember our history. It is filled with stories of “pioneers,” who left their countries and their homes to live free! Use your vote wisely.

Slavery or Liberty?

My personal history is what shaped my thinking today. Mom and Dad came to this country to escape slavery. Yes, they were slaves. In Europe, most countries were feudal monarchies. In a monarchy the Lord owns everything, and everyone on his property. History is nice enough not to call them slaves; they were referred to as “serfs.” Living on a royal estate meant that if you were caught stealing a rabbit or a pheasant for your meal, you were punished. Everything belonged to the Lord of the estate. Happily, the monarchies eventually crumbled. My grandparents and my parents were born during this era. Living as a serf meant they were dirt poor. My grandfather couldn’t afford to feed his son, so he sent him to the “promised land.”  My father landed at Ellis Island in the nineteen twenties. He was seventeen, with only the clothes on his back. Somehow he managed to get to Chicago where he settled in a neighborhood of fellow immigrants who spoke the language. He managed to get a job with the railroad as a laborer. HE LEARNED TO SPEAK AND WRITE ENGLISH, He became a citizen. He registered to vote and voted in every election until he died. He retired from the same job forty eight years later.

 Shortly after he arrived, the country collapsed into the “Great Depression.”  His hours were cut in half. The RR wanted to spread the work around. He was happy to be employed. He married Mom, and together they worked things out. She grew vegetables in empty lots, learned to sew, and patched clothing. When she could, she worked part time jobs as a cook. There was no minimum wage, no health care, no forty hour week, no vacations, and welfare was a swear word. Only the very desperate went on welfare. They didn’t have a “Community Organizer” or “Acorn,” to help them. Mom and Dad survived on their own using their God given brain. They learned and understood the value of citizenship and the right to vote. They registered and voted in every election as Democrats. They lived as conservatives.

 They worshipped FDR because he brought the country out of the depression, and put men to work. We were never allowed to forget the depression. Any time we complained, we got the “depression,” lecture. Mom and Dad didn’t want to go through that again, ever. They warned us of the hardship that a depression would bring, and lived their lives as if another one could happen any moment. My grandfather lost his life savings in a failed bank, my Aunt lost her house to foreclosure. Life in a depression is not good.

My parent’s only education was their language and citizenship classes. Yet, they believed in the value of education. I went to a parochial school, they gladly paid. If I wasn’t getting good marks, they wanted to know why. They couldn’t help with my homework, but they insisted it be done. I went on to college. Dad didn’t understand what my chosen profession was about, but he supported me financially, and morally. They never complained, never asked for any help. They insisted I finish school.

Currently, our country faces the prospect of another “depression.” I know that those of us who were prepared to survive will make it through. I can only hope the same holds true for those who are not. What the people of this great country do not understand is the meaning of ‘poor.” I have personally seen poor people in other parts of the world. The poor in the U.S.A. are by far the richest poor in the world. They don’t know what poor means. We are also faced with a huge redistribution of wealth from the very rich to the so called “poor.” This move is definitely in the direction of socialism. Add that move to the effort to remove “GOD” from everything and we have “Communism.” Once the wealthy have been taxed to the point that they are no longer wealthy, we will all be the middle class. Those of us who are still working will be “slaves” to the Federal System to socialize everyone.

This is the way I see our choices:

1.    Vote for BO, become a slave to the feed the system.

2.    Vote for McCain and maintain your liberty to make a living as you choose and to use your earnings as you wish.

What will it be? Slavery or Liberty?