THIS IS A PHOTO OF THE LAKE MY HIKING GROUP AND I HIKED AROUND ON WEDNESDAY. AS YOU CAN SEE THE WEATHER WAS BEAUTIFUL AND THE LAKE LOOKED LIKE GLASS. SO MANY WONDERFUL SIGHTS AND A VERY ICY STREAM THAT WE HAD TO WADE THROUGH...AND BOY DID IT FEEL GOOD ON MY TIRED FEET!
I HAD JUST REMOVED A FLOWER POT FROM THIS BASKET WHEN I TURNED AROUND AND THERE WAS A CAT PLANTED IN IT!!! YES, THAT'S OUR CAT WHO TENDS TO MAKE HERSELF COMFORTABLE IN MANY STRANGE PLACES.
WHEN WE AWOKE THIS MORNING THE TEMPERATURE WAS 45 AND THIS AFTERNOON THE TEMPERATURE IS 102 DEGREES. OKAY, SUMMER IS HERE! THANK GOODNESS FOR THE AIR CONDITIONER.

Browsing Old Cemeteries

A truly Happy Person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour. And, one who can enjoy browsing old cemeteries... Some fascinating things on old tombstones!

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Harry Edsel Smith of Albany , New York :

Born 1903--Died 1942.

Looked up the elevator shaft to see if the car was on the way down. It was.
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In a Thurmont, Maryland , cemetery:
Here lies an Atheist, all dressed up and no place to go.
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On the grave of Ezekial Aikle in
East Dalhousie Cemetery , Nova Scotia :
Here lies Ezekial Aikle, Age 102. Only The Good Die Young.
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In a London , England cemetery:
Here lies Ann Mann, Who lived an old maid but died an old Mann.Dec. 8, 1767
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In a Ribbesford, England , cemetery:
Anna Wallace
The children of Israel wanted bread, And the Lord sent them manna.Clark Wallace wanted a wife, And the Devil sent him Anna.
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In a Ruidoso, New Mexico , cemetery:
Here lies Johnny Yeast... Pardon me for not rising.
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In a Uniontown, Pennsylvania , cemetery:
Here lies the body of Jonathan Blake.Stepped on the gas instead of the brake.
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In a Silver City , Nevada , cemetery:
Here lays The Kid.We planted him raw.He was quick on the triggerBut slow on the draw.
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A lawyer's epitaph in England :
Sir John Strange.
Here lies an honest lawyer, and that is Strange.
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John Penny's epitaph in the Wimborne,
England , cemetery:
Reader, if cash thou art in want of any,Dig 6 feet deep and thou wilt find a Penny.
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In a cemetery in Hartscombe , England :
On the 22nd of June, Jonathan Fiddle went out of tune.
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Anna Hopewell's grave in Enosburg Falls, Vermont :
Here lies the body of our Anna,Done to death by a banana.It wasn't the fruit that laid her low, But the skin of the thing that made her go.
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On a grave from the 1880s in Nantucket , Massachusetts :
Under the sod and under the trees,Lies the body of Jonathan Pease.He is not here, there's only the pod.Pease shelled out and went to God.
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In a cemetery in England :
Remember man, as you walk by,As you are now, so once was IAs I am now, so shall you be.Remember this and follow me.
To which someone replied by writing on the tombstone:
To follow you I'll not consent.Until I know which way you went.

We went on a short road trip on Sunday...just a few miles south of us close to the Idaho border. There is a little town that has a gas station and a Post Office. And of course, even though the town is extremely small there is always a very old cemetery near by. Well, we had no problem finding the sigh telling us where to find the road to the cemetery but we were very surprised where it actually took us

Several times as we were following the road to the cemetery we both question each other if we were really on the correct road. We were climbing and climbing up a very winding one lane dirt road up the side of a very tall mountain. But finally we reached our destination!!!...........

This little, very old, cemetery was actually on the very top of this mountain. Wow, what a view. I imagine it was in this setting because this is a very fertile valley and back in the homesteading days they used every inch of level land to grow their crops to survive. And maybe they didn't want to use this land for their cemetery. Just a guess but what an incredible site they have chosen. You can see all the way to Idaho from here.

The above photo represents one of my favorite things to see when I am on my walk home after my 30 to 60 minute speed walk each day....that tiny white dot near the large tree in the road is actually JW on his way to meet me as I am returning home. There is nothing better than to have a hand to hold on the last stretch going home! Thanks JW

And it's wonderful to finally see the beautiful Big Blue sky of Montana...it has been a very long time since we have seen a day with out big clouds blocking the sun. This is wonderful.

I AM SURE TIRED OF OLD MAN WINTER AND I SURE WISH HE WOULD GO AWAY FOR AT LEAST 5 MONTHS AND LET US HAVE SOME KIND OF SUMMER WEATHER! EVERYTHING WAS WHITE YESTERDAY MORNING BUT IT LOOKED LIKE THE ABOVE PHOTO BY THE TIME I GOT OUTSIDE TO TAKE A PICTURE.
THE WILDLIFE ARE THE ONES WHO SEEM TO BE HAVING THE TOUGHEST TIME WITH THIS CRAZY WEATHER. THE BEAUTIFUL BLUE BIRD IN THE ABOVE PHOTO JUST ARRIVED FROM HIS NORMAL MIGRATION FROM MEXICO AND SINCE HE FOUND OUR FEEDER, HE HASN'T LEFT. I CAN'T BLAME HIM...IT'S COLD. HE IS A LAZULI BUNTING THAT IS COMMON TO THE STATE OF MONTANA IN THE SUMMER. AND THE LITTLE HUMMING BIRDS ARE STAYING INSIDE THE LILAC BUSHES MOST OF THE TIME. EVEN THE DEER AND ELK HAVE COME BACK DOWN FROM THE SNOW COVERED MOUNTAINS TO FIND WARMER AREAS TO STAY.
EVEN WITH ALL THIS CRUMBY WEATHER THE NATIVE FLOWERS SEEM TO FIND THE COURAGE TO BLOOM ANYWAY. I WILL FIND MY MONTANA FLOWER BOOK AND LET YOU KNOW WHAT THIS PRETTY FLOWER IS CALLED.

This is the weather I saw when I started on my morning walk this morning. But I decided to take a chance and try to beat the upcoming storm anyway. I was fortunate... the storm actually held off until I arrived back home. But then....
It rained so hard that most of the blossoms fell off the pretty little tree next to the driveway. And we also had quite a bit of large hail hit too. The lupines held as much hail as they could until it finally melted and went away. The sound on my carport roof was wonderful!! But the storm passed through rather quickly and the sun found it's way out from behind the clouds again.

I SAW SOME BEAUTIFUL SITES ON MY EARLY MORNING WALK. ALL OF THIS RAIN HAS REALLY BROUGHT OUT THE BLOOMS ON EVERYTHING. THE ABOVE PHOTO WAS TAKEN IN THE NEIGHBORS YARD.
THIS WAS TAKEN FROM THE BACK DECK LOOKING SOUTH. WE WERE HOPING THAT THE POT OF GOLD WAS IN OUR BACK YARD BUT I AM AFRAID IT WASN'T THERE!

THERE ARE LOT'S OF PRETTY FLOWERS TO SEE ALONG MY MORNING WALK.
AND OF COURSE THERE ARE PLACES WHERE YOU HAVE TO STOP AND SAY HELLO ONCE IN A WHILE TOO!!

These are a few of the plants that are in bloom in our yard. The lilac has the most wonderful scent and it is so full of color this year.
The young Hosta's are enjoying their new homes under the branches of the lilac. They receive good light but the branches insure that they will not get to much direct sunlight that would burn their tender new foliage.

I thought this was a cherry tree in the yard but so far I see no sign of fruit. It is very pretty in full bloom.
This beautiful little flower is growing in the front flower bed and also around the Raspberry patch. I don't believe I have ever seen a flower that produces 2 different colors at the same time. Very interesting.

We are experiencing rain again...it's been fairly steady for the last several days. It stopped long enough for me to get the lawn mowed on Saturday but it is in need of another trimming very soon. So I hope there is a break in this weather real soon!