Tuesday Twitterdeepretty

I love the August flower show.  Seems like it's the "bright bloomin' " month with nasturtiums, petunias,  daisies and geraniums popping out new blossoms almost daily.  

This year,  even some of my pansies are still flourishing in size and color.

Everyone seems to be talking about the strange year it's been weatherwise.  

The folks who supply me their premium hay from Bonners Fery  told me it wasn't the July rain storms that did in their first crop of alfalfa.  Instead, the cold, wet spring with more water content than usual drowned out the baby plants.

As for weird, I can't recall an un-irrigated, bright green lawn in August.  Usually, at this time of the summer,  a mow job involves inhaling clouds of dust and dealing with inner doubts about why I'm taking the time to mow this dried-up yellow stuff.

Not this year.  

I'm still cleaning up piles of moist lawn clippings after every mowing.  

Whatever the case, we're enjoying abundant and stunning color right now, and I'm not complaining. 

Saturday while I was in Spokane with my sister, Bill welcomed some visitors.  They were in town from Minnesota, and they wanted to see the farm.

Gretchen Piper and Scott Rosenbaum owned the Lovestead about 20-plus years ago.  Saturday they brought their kids and a friend to take a walk through memory lane. 

For about an hour while walking the fields and forest, Bill and the visitors exchanged lots of stories about the place.  

Gretchen remembered when she had her riding arena in the Lodgepole pasture.  She said she had intended to have the ground leveled but never got to it.

Scott remembered when the trees on the whole place were about 6 feet tall.   Now, they tower majestically throughout the entire forested areas. 

There was talk of fences----apparently, Scott and Gretchen got the major electric fence project started and then the Stewarts added to the network while setting off several pastures for their goats. 

Gretchen wanted to see the barn.

When Bill told me that, I cringed.  

Usually, I keep the barn neat and tidy.  This summer, however, the box-stall floor project has made that difficult.

The aisle way is strewn with a pile of rubber mats, boards, saw horses and various gravel piles.  

We're not quite finished with the project,  so tidiness has had to take a back seat to practicality.  

The visiting family members all signed our Lodgepole Log after Bill inducted them into the society.  Both Scott and Gretchen wrote that it looked as if their little farm is much loved.  

An accurate observation, for sure.

Bill said the kids asked their parents why they left the farm.  Scott and Gretchen said they wonder that sometimes too.

I wish I could have been here to join them and to thank Gretchen for her vision in landscaping our lovely yard.  

Though I don't keep up with the weeds, it still looks mighty pretty.

And, those bright-colored blooms of August are doing their part to add to the beauty.

Happy Tuesday.