Welcome to Sherwood Forest!

Summer in the mountains above Boise is a season of magic.

It can get HOT in the afternoons with temps reaching close to 100 – but it doesn’t feel like it.

You know that whole “It’s a dry heat” thing? If you’ve ever thought it HAD to be hogwash ---there IS a difference. I can feel the difference between 100 degrees in Winston Salem in July --- and 97 degrees in the high mountain desert of Idaho in July – and the humidity thing is the key!

I’ve been here 2 days and already my lips are so chapped they feel like they could fall off! It’s a good thing I stocked up on the carmex ahead of time. Moisturize, Moisturize, Moisturize --- and then don’t forget the BUG SPRAY!

It’s buggy in the mountains – and those little blood suckers are vicious!

The magic is what happens once the sun has gone past the trees in the late afternoon when the cool of the evening sets in, and even in July – you have to throw on an extra shirt or a sweater, because the temps drop so quickly.

In the morning it will be down right chilly --- and that is perfect for wrapping up a bit warmer and sitting on the deck with a hot cup of tea, or wandering around the garden while the dew is still fresh on the flowers.

Come take a walk with me through my mom’s garden – it is one of my most favorite places on earth!

I will be the first one to tell you that I am not a gardener. Being the kind of gardener my mom is –that’s a full time seasonal job, and I’d never be able to do it with the kind of travel my life has dished out to me lately – but I have dreams – oh yes I do ---of some day having a beautiful garden to wander through.

In the mean time, I go home to visit mom’s ---and my senses are filled with color, and fragrance and texture, each plant thriving in the environment provided for it by the loving hands of my mother.

Mom’s house on the mountain top ---I’m standing toward the back of the garden beds…standing next to the strawberries looking back toward the house. The little cart you see is a favorite of the grand kids – they run each other ragged, some one riding, someone pulling round and round and round the yard – keep em busy, keep em tired is a slogan well known around a house with this many grandkids running loose!

Addie pulling Kenzie and Logan around the yard!

Along with the cart are log stools and benches…..they encircle the fire pit that will be used this week for making s’mores, singing around the bon fire, and late night chatter and laughter --- the smoke is a good mosquito deterrent! Many memories are made around this camp fire.

A tall electric deer fence keeps local 4-legged grazers away from the veggie beds, fruit trees and berries!

Walking along groomed pathways will take you past a wide variety of perennials. Many of them have been traded back and forth from Minnesota to Idaho and back between my mom and her sister who is also an avid gardener.

Everywhere you turn scenes are set with little vignettes – here we have a turtle on a rock and a sign that reminds me to BREATHE!

Find the sign that says DREAM!

The purple puffballs are my favorite --- and that isn’t heir real name…but LOOK at that intense color! We thought it might be in the "campanula" family, but after searching them it doesn't look like it is -- anyone know?

One cluster is almost as big as my hand!

Here mom is explaining to her sister Joy about the different ground covers she grows – every year she has a “garden sale” and people come from miles around to purchase shovel-fulls of the various things she is famous for growing.

Foxglove is a favorite --- and my Aunt, a nurse – simply calls it for what it is most known as …DIGITALIS! Love this pink color!

Star-shaped bellflowers in a periwinkle blue…

I think Joy called this one a “cherry bell” and it is one that mom brought back from Joy’s garden in Minnesota to see how it would do in the mountains of Idaho. So far it is thriving!

Inviting benches and pots dripping with viney blossoms.

It’s interesting to me that a gardener will also go for things that have contrast – planting shorter things next to things that are taller, and varying where the blooming plants go to create a landscape of endless interest and new things for the eyes to discover. It is much like designing a quilt ----and not wanting all the greens to be the same shade, but planting something with variegated leaves next to something with spotted leaves, and that next to something that has really LARGE leaves ….next to something that has long spokey spikey sharp leaves.

This is where I am spending my days. This is where we all gather for walks in the garden, to watch the grandkids play, to sit at tables and talk about what has gone on in our lives since we saw each other last.

These are the moments we will remember forever.

Today there will be more siblings and spouses and cousins arriving – the party increases!

Kelli the Movie Star ;c)

Family is just the best there is!