"Something's happening here...

...what it is ain't exactly clear..."

 ...but, on some level or another (apologies to misuse of Buffalo Springfield lyrics),  I'm softening a little and coming to really love the Bitterroot Valley. Here, it's photographed from mountains to the east of the valley -- from the misty blue Sapphires which, once climbed, make the Bitterroots to the west look equally misty from high moisture levels in the air.

I like the cool, summer climate here, I L-O-V-E the views, I enjoy many aspects of downtown Hamilton and surrounds, and I'm coming to adore some of the people. Mary Barton and her husband Kelsey Milner are salt-of-the-earth and political progressives. You couldn't have a better or more beautiful evening than sitting around their kitchen table with window walls on two sides, eating dinner, drinking wine, talking local issues and looking east and north out over the valley.  Kels is Alex's boyhood friend from summer trips here, and he takes us on an exhilarating, after-dinner walk of his inherited part of the family's bit of Bitterroot foothills, plus additional acreage that he's purchased (I leave my camera in the house, darn it, but it's so nice just to take a sunset walk without the big contraption). Mary, meanwhile, is the kindest, funniest person you're likely to meet. It's hard to describe how friendly people are here. I'll have a chance to meet more, and to get many pictures of all the Milners, at the memorial/dedication next week to their mother, Doris (http://explorethebitterroot.com/public-invited-to-doris-milner-dedication).

But here are two more examples of extra-nice Bitterrooters.

The old pick-up truck we're following, above, belongs to Jerry Lewis (not the comedian, I'm sure he gets that a lot) who stops mid-road to give us instructions on how to get to the Willow Mountain Lookout. This stop to share information puts me in the mind of a favorite Hamilton, duckboy.com postcard (© Paul Stanton)...

 
Anyway, the directions are a little complicated for us city folk, so Jerry says to follow him and in a few minutes, he's pulled into his driveway that's right on our route.  We look at the map again, get our bearings for the rest of our trip, and start to chat. We take in his breathtaking view from a sideyard patio...

 And we talk about his wife Sharon's mother in Missouri, the tornadoes back home (she's fine), the weather here, our own links to Hamilton, his son in Afghanistan and granddaughter's rabbit that he's keeping safe in a cage back near a beautiful vegetable garden. And the next thing we know, we're invited back! We trade information. A couple of calls later and we've got plans to go over Tuesday night for wine, the view and dinner!!  (This all takes place after another invitation to dinner from Marie Anne, one of the people Alex met online and played flute with in Missoula last week; she and her husband live nearby in Victor and are having us to the house for BBQ tonight!) I'm deciding to let go of the political discussions that Alex and I always get into with close friends and to get to know these super-friendly, trusting Bitterrooters on their own terms.


Here's a bit of the trip up Willow Mountain:

This is the two-lane road at one of its wider spots (very narrow, boulder-strewn in others, no guard rail at all!). But alongside are tons of Mule-ears daisies (sunflower relative);  unopened little bellflowers of what I think is pink Sticky Geranium; and Shootingstar making a come back after a forest fire took out many trees.

 

A final view of the Bitterroots greets us as we make our way down.

We get home and settle in on our own patio.

I'm reading Ivan Doig, drinking Moose Drool (among other local brews we're collecting) and watching Hamilton go by. Oh, and there are the hardy geraniums coming on in our patio garden to view...

... plus an old Ball-brand canning jar full of cut stems of lilac plus the delightful feathery Mountain Bluet (Centaurea montana, harvested from the alley) awaiting us inside. Nice day.