Flower Beds Finale...

It's that time of year . . . most of my perennials have finished their flowering,

 the annuals are fading. 

The only little bright spot in my flower beds are the flowers that I planted from seed. 

Since our summer is so short I usually don't have much luck with flowers from seed..

but the Cosmos are starting and even have visitors.

The sweet peas are growing. . .

There's alway been something about Sweet Peas that I love..

 the scent of them in the house is wonderful...

Saskatoons

Saskatoons bring memories... 

I remember as a very young girl, mom going Saskatoon picking with her friends... 

I can only remember going with her once...

I remember having a pail with a string around my neck... 

it was fun...

for 5 minutes...

(picking small berries is one thing I do not enjoy!)

I remember mom coming home with buckets and buckets...

the washing the freezing the baking..

My granddaughter picked me a bucket... 

I know it took her hours...

knowing my granddaughter I'm sure she didn't complain..

They are delicious!

Kid's Play!

"Grandfathers are just antique little boys"

author unknown

Linking with A little of this and that - Simple Pleasures

Sand Thoughts

Do not go where the path may lead, 

go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

I made the sand a boundary for the sea, an everlasting barrier it cannot cross. the waves may roll, but they cannot prevail; they may roar, but they cannot cross it. NIV Jeremiah 5:22

I Got Mail - Real Mail!

A while back

 Linda's Life Journal 

had a draw for a Denim Book Cover 

and this week guess what arrived!

Thank you Linda for the delightful cover, complete with a book!

Linda is a very talented lady and if you haven't seen her blog...check it out on the link below!

Linda's Life Journal

Lunch Time!

How Amazing...

Around our pool the fence is constantly filling up with cobwebs and I constantly clean them off! The other morning we had fog and when I walked around the fence all the webs were covered with dew and looked amazing. I tried to take some pictures with my little camera. A few didn't turn out to bad.

 That morning I saw the beauty in those webs and were amazed at how tiny the spider was that had spun this web! I had a look online at spider webs and WOW! How amazing!
 Here is the link if you want to have a look spider webs

"For me, the world of nature bears spectacular witness 

To the imaginative genius of our Creator."— Phillip Yancey,

Cloud Display

The other evening Hubby and I watch the clouds roll in and this is what we saw in a matter of 20 minutes...

Then it was over...
It was amazing how the clouds changed so quickly...no rain came...just the array of clouds and that was that!

Hydrangeas

One of my favourite flowers. . .

I would like a bush like this!

I would even settle for on like this...but I do live in Alberta so...
(I believe the above are MopHeads)

I am content with having this Hydrangeas. I believe it is called an Annabelle and can survive extreme cold winters....

I enjoy my flowers, but don't know the names of half the flowers I have. How about you, do you like gardening and if so...do you know all the names of the flowers in your garden?

Children

If you're a parent...you will know that once a parent...always a parent, there are no returns on children and no manual.

My one wish in life was to have children and that wish came true. Children bring fulfillment, joy, fun times, they teach you what love really is. I remember the first time I held each of my children, I had never experienced that kind of love before. I think as humans, it is the closest we can get to understand how much God loves us.

You have the 'baby years' when those little ones depend solely on you for their very life. Then the toddler years when they start to realize they are independent of you. Soon the school years follow where others have an impact on your children. Hopefully you have done your job in the early years! Teen years...with challenges of their own and before you know it they are gone....soon to start families of their own.

Every year when my children's birthday comes along I reminisce of the years the children where at home. Today our youngest celebrates his birthday. Happy birthday son!

"I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. 

3 John 1:4"

Raspberries

Home again Home again... and here come the work..

One thing I do not do is pick raspberries, strawberries yes 

but NOT the raspberries. 

This is hubby's domain!

And he has only just begun.....

Okay...so now it's my job...to use them ...

Smoothies

Chocolate Raspberry Brownies - Raspberry Crumble  - Raspberry Bundt Cake

Raspberry Mandarin Salad

 Okay so now I have used 6 cups of Raspberries... 

18 cups left and a couple more weeks of picking hmmm.....

Well I am so thankful we were away for the first two weeks they were ready!! 

Our children were able to enjoy them:)

If you want recipes for Raspberries I found this Raspberry Website that has lots of ideas!

Home

"When your safe at home you wish you were having an adventure; when you're having an adventure you whish you were safe at home."

-   Thornton Wilder 

One more....

I thought I was finished with my holiday post...but I have to share this find. We went home along the Sawtooth Scenic By-Way. Scenic it was ...over summits.

 We hit a section of road that followed right beside the river, it was narrow and was very curvy. 

Up ahead of us we saw steam coming out of the side of the river....Hot Springs, who would of ever thought..

Alexander Ross and his Hudson Bay Fur Trappers were the first white men to visit these Hot Springs. His diary states they camped beside the boiling water, on October 1, 1824. (A believe me...some of it is boiling!)

There is a stone Bathhouse built in 1937 that still stands. 

It is used today for people to change if they want to take a dip in the springs. Rocks have been laid to make little pools for people to enjoy.

You can have a good foot soak...if you forgot your swim suit...

Or you can get right in there and soak every inch...

This topped our off our second last day traveling home! 

Ketchum/Sun Valley

I had read an article in a travel magazine about 'America's Alps' located in Idaho.

This article went into our bucket list as a place to visit.

Ketchum began as a silver mining town in 1880. It was once a sheep herding mecca. In 1920 Ketchum was second in worldwide sheep exports only to Sydney, Australia. Skiing first came to Ketchum out of necessity for miners, sheepherders and townsfolk as winter transportation.  In 1936 Sun Valley became a winter resort destination for the rich and famous.

With a little driving on secondary roads Ketchum was sorta on our way home. So we headed across Oregon on a secondary road headed towards Ketchum. Idaho.We drove through farmland that grew onions...

I found this so interesting as I have never seen onions grown in such big quanities and the air was actually quite yummy smelling! (I guess if you like onions!)

Once we got to Ketchum we found that the bike trails that the article talked about were every bikers dream. 40 miles of paved biking! It was great!

The town of Ketchum was your regular mountain ski town. We found the town slower than other mountain ski towns we have visited. After our 4 mile bike ride (there is only 1 rv park in this area that has hook-ups) to Ketchum we visited a local coffee bar before we headed back.

The following day we headed into Sun Valley which is a separate town right beside Ketchum. We took a bike path thru sub divisions with beautiful homes! If your looking for a summer cottage and have an extra million laying around you may be able to find a small cottage in this area!

view along the bike trail

There are many places to ski in this area. We past the Dollar ski area one of the earliest ski hills.

Then we arrived in Sun Valley...

Sun Valley Symphony multi -million dollar outdoor pavilion

Street in Sun Valley Resort

Sun Valley Resort

The Sun Valley Lodge walls are lined with photographs of every VIP imaginable who has visited the ski slopes of Sun Valley. At the back of the Lodge there is the Gretchen's Family  Restaurant that has an outside patio that faces their outside Skating Rink! (This is July, is it just me or have you heard of an outside skating rink in the summer?) We had to have lunch there...you can eat on a patio outside any time...but not often by a skating rink! The rink is open to the public for public skating. In the summer months every Saturday evening you can watch Olympic champions and World Class Skaters perform.

 The food was reasonably priced... you had you choice of butter, apricot butter or jalopeno butter for you buns.

 The portions where huge (thank goodness we biked 30 km today?)

We headed on back to our RV park...

Ketchum/Sun Valley trip was definitely worth it! We may never visit this area again...but if you enjoy biking and camping this is a relaxing spot to visit! Plus you have the bonus of cute towns to visit, good entertainment if you want and lots of places to enjoy a cup of jo!
Can't forget their fishing here too..right along the bike paths!

So tomorrow we press on north!