Hallson Gardens

Idiots Walk in Beauty Ep9 Individuality, Cooperation and Competition (Another belated Idiots episode from October, 2017.) The Escalante Canyons Art Festival includes a plein air competition, which creates an odd dynamic. Artists usually work solo. Their art is all about seeking beauty through indiv...

Idiots Walk in Beauty Ep 8 Beauty in doing and varied visions The Idiots purchased a couple of amateur paintings in Quartzite, AZ several years ago. The technique used to make them was called “alcohol ink.” They’ve wondered about this medium ever since. When they learned there would be a “hands on”...

There's a running gag in the Idiots' Arizona community - "Just another Green Valley sunset!" The same can be applied to sunrises, though the Idiots are far less likely to see those! The desert and mountains just seem to work together to produce frequent Technicolor moments. The Idiots usually watch...

nice! Thanks, David... those are lovely!

Idiots Walk in Beauty Ep 7 Finding Beauty in Light… Shapes… Textures Escalante, Utah, is a jumping off point for exploring the Grand Staircase – Escalante National Monument. Bill Clinton designated the area a national monument in 1996. It was a controversial step. Clinton came in third in Utah in t...

thanks... appreciate your appreciation!

Idiots Walk in Beauty Ep 6 Finding Beauty in the commonplace… and strangers becoming friends Idiot She is learning to paint with watercolors, so when they saw that the last demonstration on the last day of the festival was by Chinese watercolor artist Yidan Guo, they looked at examples of her work ...

Idiots Walk in Beauty Ep 5 Finding Beauty in old barns… How do you pronounce Escalante ? If you can get a person to say the name of the town, you will immediately be able to tell if they are local or a visitor. In the same year the British colonies on the East Coast sent King George a nasty letter ...

Idiots Walk in Beauty Ep 4 The Beauty of staying in one place… Sometimes the Idiots spend a whole day… or a couple days… or a few days… without leaving their campground. People sometimes question how that is possible. “Isn’t it… boring?!” When traveling, it’s relatively easy to find an attractive v...

Idiots Walk in Beauty Episode 3 Finding Beauty in… The Idiots not only travel slowly, they are slow in reporting on their adventures. They arrived at their Arizona winter home a couple of weeks ago, but they still want to share some photos and stories from their journey south. So… hoping that late ...

thanks, all! and David... thanks... and you are always so kind to comment - I'm disappointed we've only been able to meet up in person in such a limited way... If you ever get back to Minnesota in summer, or southern Arizona in winter, we'd love to see you! (free guest bedroom suite in Green Valley,...

Idiots Walk in Beauty Ep 2 Different highways… It’s become a common cliché’ for the Idiots… they’ll be somewhere new… often spectacular… and ask “How long do you suppose you’d have to live here before this all became commonplace – before you forgot to see the beauty?” Of course, it happens to us al...

Idiots Walk in Beauty Episode 1 Another journey, but always the same destination. In pursuit of Beauty… To the Navajo, there is really no distinction between Nature, Spirituality, and Health. The central concept is “hozho”, which roughly translates as “balance and harmony.” When we live in harmony ...

Idiots in the Dark Total Solar Eclipse, August 21, 2017 In May of 2017, Idiot He announced to Idiot She that on August 21st “Darkness will sweep across the land and we should make a road trip to share this experience with other like-minded people!” She’s first response was to check to see that he h...

I'm not sure why these are not used more... they grow so well for us here in Minnesota. I know a big part of it is they are frequently described as being not financially viable for the big retailers. The common wisdom - and I heard this directly from the folks at the big wholesaler, Walters in Michi...

Idiots Afloat Ep 15 Bali Wrap-up A Lost Episode A few final thoughts and photos from Bali. (The Idiots visited Bali, Indonesia, the first week of February, 2017. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Idiots like being independent when they travel, but t...

Idiots Afloat Ep 14 Bali - Two water temples and lots of rice -------------------------------------- Editors’ note: The Idiots traveled to SE Asia in February 2017. They’ve been back in the US for about 2 months, but life has kept them too busy to keep up with these episodes. They think the photos ...

It’s probably been about 20 years since we bought two martagon lily bulbs. One was Claude Schride – a deep red one that has just multiplied and multiplied for us. (The camera sees it as a much brighter red than the human eye) The second bulb was a light pink – we don’t remember the name – with some...

thanks, Lucy! I rarely include myself in our blogs, but this one just seemed right...

Thank you, friends! The construction was a labor of love with a bit of obsession thrown in. More recently the labor has not been a joy - but the beauty continues to feed our souls.