Lake Life

Ripple marks in the sand through the crystal clear mountain water.

View from the deck while holding a fine glass of wine, syrah, to be precise.

Z is a gracious host. He seems to love our company!

 He even shares his fine wines.

We love him and his Lake place and Cally the dog; at least Cally will swim with us,

 Z seems to have an adversion to getting wet this summer.

see that "thing" floating out there? That is an inflatable island.

It is a great place to escape when the dog that lives here doesn't get

the hint that we don't want to throw the rock for her to fetch anymore!

The spot from which we dive.

Yonder shore is our destination when we swim across.

I cannot remember the exact measurement in yards, but the

translation is: roughly 1/2 mile to yonder shore.

Sunbathing

After the swim,

Across the Lake and back, that is.

This is my life in the summer in Montana.

Dorr Skeels

Dorr Skeels is a campground on Bull Lake named after a district ranger (and maybe forest supervisor) from the early 1900's. I know he was active when the 1910 Fire came through.
It is a beautiful spot on the north end of Bull Lake, one place in America where camping is still FREE.
Some friends that we met at Turner Mountain, that live in Eureka, were camped there this weekend. They came for Circus Camp and because "the dad" is working in the area AND they needed to drive to Spokane to get "Gigi and Pops" on Saturday night.
So, MX and I had to go visit camp on Friday and then again on Saturday when we drug Helen along too!
Us girls swam across the Lake on Friday in high winds to swing off the rope swing and it was SO much FUN we did it again Saturday morning! Thankfully, it was dead calm Sat. morning!
Lovin' Summer! Lovin' the Lake!

Circus Fun!

Hoop Construction

Wrapping the colors for best results

Ready to hula! Look at the experts!

L loved the fish! He even tried to get in with them!

Enthusiastic participants!

Even circus food!

J made homemade potato chips, I did organic corndogs, (yeah! Organic!Smokies dipped in cornbatter from scratch! Thankfully I had the assistance of one of our guests that worked for A&W ages ago when they made them from scratch to lead me through the process!) Peanuts, and a lovely potluck assortment of delicacies including sushi (homemade!) Mmmmmm! It was delish and FUN!

Camping

View out the camper door.

This was a lovely scene each morning,

The Lake, beckoning us to jump in!

Sunflowers!

Today I got a beautiful gift!

This gorgeous bouquet is from the cleaning lady

who cleans our office.

A random act of kindness!

These blooms are from her garden here in Troy!

There are sprigs of wheat in the bouquet, as-well-as dill

which smells wonderful!

What a summer day treat!

Spreading a bunch of sunshine!

Little shindig

I had to share the fun postcard made by my artistic co-worker for the

Friday evening gathering we are hosting.

Sounds like fun, doesn't it?!

Lake Cocolalla

Lounging.

Dockside.

Great Blue visitor.

Both mornings I awakened early and took a dip and then went back to bed to snooze and read.

This foto is on morning 2 when it was real early and the sun wasn't yet over the horizon.

It was actually much brighter than this shows and very orange and yellow.

That black blurr in the sky is the heron before he landed on the beach.

Gorgeous!But my photography skills weren't able to cover it.

The heron flew onto the beach just after I snapped this foto so I snapped one of him (at least I think it was a "him" but how do you tell?) too, but it just turned out black!

 I was glad when he came back in full daylight and let me have another chance.

 {I am sure it was the same one! ;-0}

Saturday Night-Keb Mo

No photos.

I just didn't feel the urge to get the camera out.

There were 3 bands that night with long intermissions between.

It was a mellow night with mellow acts and it was a good time to bond

with the blanket and chair.

The Festival is such a good and laid back place to take in a show.

The osprey are flying about as their nests are atop the stadium lights,

(it is at the HS football field right on the Lake),

everyone has their picnic blankets and bottles of wine

 and kids are running around everywhere,

dancing and having fun.

It is decorated by a local nursery, so the plants and flowers and trees and park benches

make it very serene and homey, and the food smells are divine!

The finest local restaurants all have booths, there is too much good stuff to choose.

Most of all everyone is happy and revelling and noone is a stranger.

Brandi Carlisle-Friday

Just a glimpse of the ambience of the evening,

loving the purple!

Loved the cello! Oh My! That really made the show!

S&V brought assorted growlers from assorted breweries,

that was wonderful!

Big Bad VooDoo Daddy-Thursday

Love how this guy twirls the bass! Oh My!

Hayes Carll - She Left Me for Jesus

How does your garden grow?

With hollyhocks scattered about.....(for some reason, the best laid rows never turn out that way!)

I have black ones and these gorgeous pink ones!

I thinned some plants out and brought them to work and planted them along the fence...

they are 13 feet tall! No exaggeration!

Peaking through the garden gate

The hops growing over the gateway to the garden.

Sunflowers growing near the arbor, roses are planted, but not quiet up the sides yet.

They will be there one day, all bright and pink welcoming you through the portal.

Summertime....

Sunny summer days on Porcupine Creek.

A nice weekend was spent fussing about the property.

Weeding, mowing, trimming, watering and relaxing.

Nothing like relaxing and appreciating laundry on the line,

 bread rising on the porch rail,

a handsome man on a ladder fussing with the siding...

a cold beer on the porch with the paper after dinner.

Yep, summertime! Worth slowing down the busy summer schedule

and just appreciating the small things.