Getting to Know the Neighbors - Heirloom Rose Gardens

Wiley came to spend the day at the farm with Gramma and what a day we had! Wiley loves to hear stories about the farm and stories about animals. As soon as he sees me he usually asks me if I have any new stories, so I was really glad that I had a new story!

I told him about spotting a large hawk nest on top of a power pole as we were taking a drive a few days before. He wanted to know all about it and so we jumped in the car and I took him to see it rather than just talk about it. We started out on our first adventure of the day.

We could only look at it so long, hoping that a hawk would fly in and sit down for a while. We would still be there waiting if Wiley was the driver that day.

From the hawk nest, we drove to the Heirloom Rose Gardens in Saint Paul, Oregon. They have a lot of beautiful roses. If you are a rose lover like I am you should make the trip if you are anywhere near Saint Paul.

The cute little gift cottage is on the right

Ready to enter the first garden

Wiley leading the way

 Roses

We took time to smell a lot of roses

Wiley wearing a pair of my sunglasses

They have lots of places to sit down

Lots of places to climb

Lots of places to take drinks of water...

...and more water!

You know what happens when you drink a bottle of water. That's right, you need an outhouse! Quick!

Wiley's first outhouse can be seen in the background

I wasn't sure what he was going to think about going in an outhouse. He marched right in and of course, took a look down, way down. I won't write what he said but we had quite a conversation about the whole concept of outhouses. He stood tall and took care of business and doesn't seem to be permanently scared by what he saw down there. The good news, it was exceptionally clean and didn't smell at all. In fact, all we could smell was roses!

As we left the outhouse, we heard a loud noise coming down the road behind us. A man stopped to put a large branch in the back of his tractor. Wiley ran to the fence and said "Excuse me, is that a John Deere tractor?" The man laughed and said yes it was. Wiley proudly told him "I have a John Deere tractor, too!" The nice man talked to Wiley for a minute or so about his tractor, and then we watched him drive away.

Nice man driving his John Deere tractor

We stopped in the cute little gift shop filled with all sorts of great yard and outdoor things. After than, Wiley was ready to go.

Wiley had seen enough roses for one day

Time to head back to the farm

A view of the Willamette river just before dusk

Wiley fell asleep mid-sentence, he was so tired! 

He was still holding his special "cherry" apple he picked while sitting on Papa's shoulders.

Heirloom Rose Gardens doesn't seem to have a website, but if you are interested in visiting the gardens, you will find their address and some other information here.