The Kelly Gallery Gardens

05/11/2024

What I love about our land is that the children develop a relationship with a place by visiting year round and experiencing all the seasons . They learn to love the forest. It’s the only way they will grow up wanting to protect more of them .

💗 Don’t miss the next wild day camp! Winter is MAGICAL. December 6 9-3 when Blue Valley Schools are out!

Friday, December 6, 2024 9:00 AM - 3:00 PM

05/11/2024

Children from a very young age should be taught that the Sun rises in the East and sets in the West.
That if you point your right hand to the East, your face will face North and your back will face South.
That the direction of the water in a river often runs towards the sea.
That the Moon rises in the East and sets in the West, that if there is no moon there is a star that indicates the north and your latitude.
That the more to the horizon you see the Polar Star, the closer you are to the Equator, if you see a bird in the middle of the sea it is because there is land in the vicinity of where it flies.
Respect and love for animals, trees, the earth, and the elements that give us life.
Teach them all this before giving them a cell phone because the cell phone runs out and the signal is lost... wisdom is never lost.
Let's not let them lose connection.

✍️ Unknown

Blue River Forest Experience

Ways of the Wild | 2 Day Winter Camp

Next camp is December 6💗
To see all camps go to
Blueriverforestexperience.org

02/11/2024

Love in the gardens

02/11/2024

More love in the gardens

01/11/2024

Some days, the world feels too sharp,
Too loud, too raw to touch.
Headlines scream, phones ring,
And chaos dances at our doorstep.

But I've learned to find sanctuary
In small moments of grace—
The way sunlight paints shadows on walls,
How wind whispers through leaves,
The steady rhythm of my own breath
When I remember to just... breathe.

I've learned to turn off the noise,
To silence the endless chatter,
To find strength in gentle things—
A cup of coffee at dawn,
A moment of kindness between strangers,
The quiet courage of growing things.

They say the world's gone mad,
But perhaps the secret is knowing
When to step away from the storm,
When to guard your peace like gold,
When to let your heart be still
In a world that never stops spinning.

For in this rush of endless moments,
We must remember to be gentle
With ourselves, with each other,
To find beauty in broken places,
To create spaces of quiet wonder
In corners of our own making.

This is how we stay whole—
Not by hardening our hearts,
But by knowing when to soften,
When to rest, when to breathe,
When to let the world's noise fade
Into the background of our being.

~ 'Find Your Quiet in the Storm' by Etheric Echoes, Etheric Echoes

01/11/2024

Dear Overland Park… and your incessant removal of old growth forests…

The felling of a tree
It is a question that must be carefully considered, both to build a road, a house, and because leaves dirty the roof and block the sewers.

A tree: Absorbs "problematic" CO2 to produce "vital" O2 and stores carbon C, fills the blades of earth with its vertical roots serving as a guide, reflcts and absorbs part of solar radiation, maintains local freshness and contributes to the formation of clouds with the phenomenon of vaporization.

It produces leaves: food for the earth and for you, the horizontal roots serve to recover nutrients, it gives sugar to the mycelium in exchange for nutrients it absorbs dust and pollutng gases, it provides habitat and food for birds, insects and rodents, it can serve as a sound barrier and visual...

In short, in addition to capturing CO2 a tree produces: fresh! Waterfall! Oxygen! The only technology that can save us.

Not only Plant trees but please stop removing the old ones which are the most beneficial for us right now. …

23/10/2024

I just had to share a special story that makes my heart happy and about a special girl named Skylar who has been coming to our Blue River Forest Experience camps for years and grew up to be a helper at our camps. She was diagnosed with Autism and she works hard to do good in the world .

Last night, at her mom’s request, I took her senior portraits for her . For those of you who just know me as a yard salad nature teacher ( one of my students named me), my main occupation has been a professional portrait photographer for 30 years on my land and in nature of course 🍁 This is why I created the beautiful scenes on my land for The Kelly Gallery Gardens that now are a home for 2 Airbnb cottages and nature camps, wild art classes and forest therapy.

These days I do portraits for people that request them, being in semi retirement mode and all lol. But it’s so true that One of my greatest artistic passions is helping people feel beautiful and happy getting their photos taken. So many have bad experiences and feel terrible about themselves based on the images they’ve seen.
And having grown up with my only sister having special needs, I believe photographing the Skylar’s of the world may be one of my most important jobs.

This morning it made me tear up when I read the words her mom texted me .. This is truly what rocks my world . Maybe I should do it a little more often..

From Erika💗

“My gosh, Kelly! These photos are just stunning!
The BEST part is how much fun she had with YOU, how beautiful you made her feel and of course, how filled up she is by being on your gorgeous property. “❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

This is what it’s all about folks . And in case you didn’t know , it’s what I’m all about .

Bring on the Joy.

13/10/2024

Today our Shinrin-Yoku Forest Therapy Walk will be moved up to 3:00 as the sun is setting earlier ! Let us know if you’re coming ! Going to be a beautiful fall day in the Blue River Forest🍁

See link below to sign up 🍁🍁🍁

06/10/2024

For my birthday I went to Utah to learn from Masters on wild clay and making paint for the clay with plants . We made paint brushes from yucca plants and this is what I made and painted . I wanted to represent the water of the Blue River and the plants on the land we teach about at Blue River Forest Experience . The clay is here is very similar to our clay. I’m so excited to come home to make more and teach others about this beautiful art form from the past .

12/09/2024

Click on link in messages to reserve this magical Blue Forest

https://blueriverforestexperience.org/nature-experiences-for-all-ages/2024-rez-to-rez-memorial-horse-ride

09/09/2024

“The old threads are unraveling,
Get your needles ready.
We are stitching a new quilt
of Humanity.

Bring your old t-shirts,
worn out jeans, scarves,
antique gowns, aprons,
old pockets of plenty
who have held Earth's treasures,
stones, feathers, leaves,
love notes on paper.

Each stitch
A mindful meditation.
Each piece of material
A story.

The more colour the better,
so call in the Tribes.
Threads of browns, whites,
reds, oranges
Women from all nations
start stitching.

Let's recycle the hate, the abuse,
the fear, the judgment.
Turn it over, wash it clean,
ring it out to dry.
It's a revolution
of recycled wears.

Threads of greens, blues, purples
Colourful threads
of peace, kindness,
respect, compassion
are being stitched
from one continent to the next
over forests, oceans, mountains.

The work is hard
Your fingers may bleed.
But each cloth stitched together
Brings together a community.
A world, our future world
Under one colourful quilt.
The new quilt of humanity.”

~ Julia Myers

Artist: Paula Nicho Cumez

06/09/2024

Cool

06/09/2024

THIS is gonna be fun…
Save the date October 27 3-7 Hayride, campfire, buckeyes and more 💗 Help protect this land . Support our nature therapy and nature programs 🦋

06/09/2024

I can see poison ivy a mile off as I remove every plant Ive seen on my land for the last 30 years . I like this description of how to identify because so many people only know there are three leaves and think everything in a forest is poison ivy . When you become aware of what it looks like it’s easy to avoid.

See three leaves, central one is serrated or jagged on both sides . The two adjacent leaves are smooth facing central leaf and serrated only on outer edge. That’s your dead giveaway.

27/08/2024

I know. It’s weird.
But there are some things in life that just rock my world .

And one of those things are Buckeyes.

In Kansas? you say. Not many, but they are on the land at Blue River Forest Experience . And it’s time to spread the love 💗

When I was a kid an old farmer gave me a buckeye. We lived on 40 acres outside of Leeton Missouri. They told me to hold on to it because it was good luck. I was intrigued and set out for the rest of my life to try to find a buckeye tree. I could never find one.

Until I moved here on this land on the edge of the Blue River Valley.

I lived here 7 years before I discovered it . It was right in my back yard . I noticed this funny little tree with some kind of nut pods on it. I couldn’t believe it was a buckeye tree. I then bought more land along the ridge from the family that has owned this land since it was the Black Bob Shawnee Indian reservation.

I realized the Shawnee were pushed from the east coast . They brought their seeds and nuts to plant. They planted Virginia Bluebells, Virginia water leaf, wild sea oats, Paw paws and buckeyes.

200 years later the children that come to our camps and the people coming to the Wild Edible Plant Wanders and Shinrin-Yoku Forest Therapy Walks
It makes my heart happy.

And the spark was ignited when that old farmer handed me a buckeye…

So today as I gathered more buckeyes than I’ve ever gathered, I think to myself, I don’t want to be a buckeye hoarder lol. So it’s time celebrate and share these beautiful buckeyes.

Some day a road will go through here and take out hundreds of buckeye trees , so I was thinking about having a gathering to plant more buckeye seeds on more areas of the land in the fall. Have a hayride, bonfire and celebrate the beauty of this land and the healing it creates for children and adults .

I want share buckeyes to raise funds for our non profit Blue River Forest Nature Sanctuary at our Belo Soa’r Rio Azul Sound Journey (Beautiful Sounds of Blue River) | Fall Equinox 2024

We are going to have a Buckeye Bash festival. If you’re interested in being a part and you have a business that you’d like to share about comment below and message us to dates you’d like to see this , during week or weekends. And let’s throw this party together 💗

More to be announced .