The Secret Garden [Belknap Hot Springs]

After a lovely (and hot) retreat weekend, I rushed home on Sunday to spend the afternoon at the swimming pool to watch the boys swim. I usually plan down-time between activities, but my parents were staying at Belknap Hot Springs for a couple days and my sister and I decided to drive down to visit them on Monday. It was absolutely unacceptable that I had never been there before! Because of the hot weather predicted in the forecast, we got up much earlier than usual and drove down together.

Shannon, Ben, Rilla, Sweden, my boys, Lola, and I all joined my parents for an early lunch picnic in the secret garden. We sat at stone tables in the shade, and it was heavenly.

We walked on a bridge over the river to find the garden.

The entrance:

Half the garden was in lush shade.

Half in bright sun.

We went for a short hike in the sun. The boys (Levi, in particular, but he shares from his collection) take Nerf swords everywhere they go, and the girls do not want to be left out. I think I’ll have to buy swords for Rilla and Lola.

Then we met more dear friends at the lodge and sat with them by this fountain sculpture while they ate a late picnic lunch.

We again walked across the bridge, visited the secret garden, and hiked the paths a bit.

After all this adventuring on the trails and cavorting about the secret garden and frolicking in the fountains, a couple of my kids begged to swim in the pool. While it looks mighty inviting and refreshing, heated by the hot springs, it is a blistering 104 degrees at the lowest. On hot, sunny days it climbs a bit. We “swam” with our friends, but it was painful. [This is the pool view from my parents’ room in the lodge.]

We headed home in the late afternoon.

Happy 47th anniversary, Mom and Dad! Thanks for allowing us to crash your party.

Patio Project

 

It doesn’t look like much, but this is Luke’s and my potted herb garden! (Leif also helped with much of the planting.) It needs to do an awful lot of growing and we should add more herbs. So far we have basil, thyme, parsley, chocolate mint, lemon balm, strawberries, several different kinds of lavender, and honeysuckle (along with some mosses and creepers).

I’m serious when I say I don’t garden (all you avid gardeners and patio people are laughing). And I’m praying that the deer stay away from our plants. But I sure love the way this looks compared to how disastrous it was a few days ago! This summer I hope to reclaim one abandoned spot at a time. Maybe the outside of our house will look half decent by September.

[This spot is the half of the back porch that extends to the right of the house and is visible from the front. I’ll share more pictures as we finish projects around the house.]

Mother’s Day in the Garden [two weeks late]

My family gathered in my mom’s garden two weeks ago to celebrate Mother’s Day. [I’d rather post these pictures late than never!] Holly brought ice cream and delicious rhubarb and blackberry syrups. The cousins played. And there was some baby-lovin’ going on. Sweden was ten days old.

More Lovely

Mother’s Day Garden Party

Shannon planned a lovely Mother’s Day garden party for all of us this year. I am abundantly grateful for such a close, wonderful family! And this was particularly enjoyable as Shannon’s first Mother’s Day. Shannon made crepes which we topped with Devonshire cream, lemon curd, sliced strawberries, honey, and/or powdered sugar. Casey and Drake manned the griddle for sausages and bacon. We filled in the gaps with grapes and crackers with Brie and red pepper jelly.

What a way to celebrate our gorgeous spring (that now has turned back into chilly rain…).

The End of an Era

Sigh. Sob. Reminisce.

After almost a decade of loving work, care,

and enjoyment, Poet's Garden is closing its gates.

Today is the final day the gardens and shop

will be open to the general public.

So much planning, dreaming, scheming, working,

and creative investing went into this venture.

It started with Shannon and me,

putting our collective dreams and hopes into a basket.

Shannon is the entrepreneur of the family.

I'm the dreamer of the family.

Dad was on board. He loves dreams.

Mom was a bit of a tougher sell, but she signed on.

Holly had a three-year-old and a one-year-old.

She volunteered to be the cheering section.

The husbands signed on by default when they

married into the family.

The poor guys worked their tails off

to build our shops.

The buildings in progress, we headed to the Seattle gift show.
And never looked back.

Shannon, Mom, and I made a terrific team. Not everyone can work with their family and remain friends. We grew inseparable. Holly joined us as often as possible.

Our dream wouldn't have been complete without the epitome (to us) of success. A feature in Victoria magazine. After a decade of inspiration through its pages, we gave inspiration to others.

Along came boy #1. I worked as often as I could with Levi. And along came boy #2. I was doing well to shower in the morning. And along came boy #3. They asked me to stay home. Grin.

And so, Mom and Shan have manned (womanned?) the store on their own the last few years while I watched from the sidelines.

The boys have had an amazing opportunity to be 'home' among a family business. They've chatted with the customers. They've enjoyed the gardens. They've loved visiting Bambi and Aunt Shan during business hours.

And now when they visit, it will still be Poet's Garden, but it will be our Poet's Garden. We will be transforming the shops into living and creative spaces. You never know....you just might catch a glimpse here at Mt. Hope or at Poet's Garden Girl.

Farewell, friends!

Hello, Sunshine

Complaining about our unseasonable weather paid off. The sun came out to play today. When we got home from church, the boys raced inside to throw on their swimming trunks.

Guess who is riding his bike without training wheels! One broke off on his 4th birthday. I promised him that Daddy would fix it. Two days later at his birthday party, Daddy fixed it by taking the training wheels off completely. He got on and rode away. That was about it. What an exciting birthday gift.
Without being on the to-do list today, we spontaneously planted our garden (better late than never). Levi helped with the labeling.

Not only did we plant up carrots, tomatoes, and a variety of other things, Russ suddenly decided to make me a fence so the deer wouldn't help themselves to our veggies. (I'm sure they'll get the idea and jump the fence...)

We put landscape lining down between the boxes so that we wouldn't have to worry about mowing or weeds. Maybe we'll cover it with something one of these days. Maybe not.

I wasn't sure how I was going to get in and out of the garden, but Russ produced a perfect metal gate that was left behind by the previous owners. I thought it needed a little something so I quickly spray painted an old rusty star with a little lime green.

Now, you avid gardeners and perfectionists, please go easy on me. Someday we'll have a huge, amazing garden. We have to start somewhere...
After a while the bikes were abandoned and the boys found other things to do.

Cardboard boxes are always nice, but nothing beats a cardboard box in tall grass. You'd think my poor boys had no toys.
We then had the weekly garbage can pilgrimage.
After eating a lovely dinner on our front porch and playing in the cool evening grass with the boys, I felt great about all we had accomplished today. Until I went inside.
Looks like I'll be up for a while.