Bull Lake Rope Swing

Yesterday i was invited to go out on Bull Lake in the boat with

the Hamers and the Leisz'.

Of course, our first stop was the roap swing.

We boated around and soaked up the sun.

At dinner time we pulled in to the Rod and Gun Club

And Tassia made us enchiladas in the dutch over in the fire ring.

Delicious!

It was a lovely outing!

I am honored to have been invited!

The Road Home

 After work I had to dashto Sandpoint to pick up Molly

and bring her to Troy for a few days

 This is our summer evening trip home through Hope, Idaho

and we took all the back roads we could.

 This is the confluence of the Clark Fork River with Lake Pend'Orielle.

 Here we are in our sweet Montana!

Highway 56 heading homeward.

 We saw elk and a beaver and the usual kazillion deer.

 The air is fragrant with the scent of wild roses and lupine.

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!

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}

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!

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.

Welcome to my World!

Some images of that state of my world at home right now!

I am loving it.

Everything is blooming or green and vibrant!

Columbine!

I have at least five different color variations of columbine,

I didn't post them all so that I wouldn't bore you, but

they are all wonderful!

And I just can't help but attempt close-ups of poppies,

perhaps one day I will get it perfect...I just LOVE the

colors and the biggness and the magic of poppies!

This is the view out of my kitchen window.

Makes washing the dishes a joy!

A poppy, just crackin' open,

getting ready to spread it's joy!

More kitchen window view......this just makes me happy.

Zippity-Doo-Dah!

Whitefish Mountain Resort (AKA Big Mountain in Whitefish, MT) Zipline.

This is a new summer feature at the resort.

We thought we needed to try it out.

It was a girls day out.

This is the end!

You come flying down and hit the big springs with the pads and in this case you come in with a enough force that if flings you back onto the line and you have come back in with less force.

Light

I just love how the light plays on the bottle and the flowers.

Seems like a re-print, but it isn't.

Birds-eye sunset

Words cannot compete!

Mountain Top Dining

Another fabulous week day evening dinner at Keeler Mountain Look-out.
The food was fabulous, the views stunning and the company enchanting!

Lunch Time Swimming

Randy and I have been swimming during our lunch break.

We go to Savage Lake, swim across and back and get back to the office in 40 minutes,

(unless we chat with Jim, the owner of the dock and these fine water lilies for too long!)

It is a lovely mid-day diversion

and helps to enhance a sunny disposition!

Fine Dining, Mountain Style

The Queen of the Mountain!
Preparing the feast!

The finished product! Mmmmmm!

Garden fresh and delicious!

Yaak Wilderness Festival

This is a puppet from a few years ago when "the puppet lady" came to Troy and the local students created these fabulous puppets over the course of several weeks and then had a parade and puppet show. Part of the " puppet project" was for the kids to learn about the communities heritage and to talk about what their perceptions of the community were and to incorporate these concepts into puppets and act it all out.

The puppets always show up at Yaak Wilderness Festival, but randomly at other events around town too. This tree guy started dancing as soon as the sun dropped over the mountain and Sol Jibe started playing! I took a movie of it but it was too dark to really see.

Below is Mike in our shady spot by the River where we got a great side view of the stage.

Sol Jibe!

On the mainstage with the Kootenai River in the background.


Usually the Yaak Wilderness Festival is in Yaak.
But the venue at which it is usually held was unavailable this year
so it was moved to Roosevelt Park in Troy.
It was a fun party, but it did lack the charm of the Yaak.

Bella

Little Bella Wood!

What a cutie!

We stayed with Dad and Elvis as our "wedding lodging"

Bella was there all the time we were there.

It was very fun to become aquainted with her!