Bertie's blossoms keep her blooming
Perched in her lush back yard, Post Falls resident Roberta "Bertie" Smith holds a gourd that she painted by hand
ELLI GOLDMAN HILBERT/Press
Just one of the outdoor vignettes sprinkled across the property of Roberta "Bertie" Smith's Post Falls home
Every corner of the yard appears to be touched with color and creativity; Roberta "Bertie" Smith's pansies are among her favorite blooms
Bertie's next project - a ceramic cat that has been whitewashed waits patiently for a touch of the paintbrush
Roberta "Bertie" Smith sits upon an old wood bench she acquired and adorned with hand-painted teddy bears and a thrift store lace throw
Planting the sunflowers along the fence is an annual tradition at the home of Roberta "Bertie" Smith, gardener and artist extraordinaire
POST FALLS — Roberta “Bertie” Smith may be 86, but she's not about to slow down.
Nestled in the middle of the central Post Falls prairie, she's spent the last five years transforming 2.5 acres into a wonderland of flowers, art and outdoor vignettes.
“This was nothing until about five years ago,” Smith said.
Today the yard is richly adorned with a plethora of perennial and annual blooms: snapdragons, daisies, poppies, roses, sunflowers, succulents, evergreens and more.
Her sense of humor hasn't wilted in the least.
“Like I said, I’m 86,” she said. “So I forget the names of some things.”
Smith likes to stay busy. And busy is an understatement.
Besides raising all of her own seedlings and tending to her yard daily, Smith is a self-taught painter. She creates intricate paintings on all kinds of found objects and ceramic figures.
“I make all of my own clothes,” she said. “Luckily I haven’t grown too much.”
The list doesn’t end there.
Also an avid baker, Smith makes her own chocolates and caramel from scratch; her next project will be chocolate drizzled hull-less kettle corn she plans to share with the Elks Lodge and her grandchildren.
“I’ve got too much ambition,” Smith said. “My mind goes wild.”
Smith’s property is a living time capsule, full of things she has made, and then re-made.
The landscape is sprinkled with items created by her grandchildren and plants she's cultivated over the years.
Smith’s art pieces are sometimes done on old milk tins, metal cookie trays or slabs of wood. She often finds things for nothing and transforms them into art.
Her garage studio, she said, holds things she has collected for years: stencils, paints, instructional books, and of course a myriad of brushes and tools.
A ceramic cat sits whitewashed, waiting to be adorned with strokes of color.
Her walker itself is a receptacle for tools, with gardening elixirs, shovels, trowels and gloves spilling out from beneath the pocket under the seat.
“I just love being busy,” Smith said, explaining that her constant activity has helped her overcome tragedies.
“I keep it that way — no tears for me,” she said.
As a young woman, Smith discovered she was unable to bear children, so later in life she adopted three.
When faced with the sudden loss of her husband she still carried on and created joy in her life.
He had been taken to the hospital with a medical emergency and passed away before she could even arrive.
Smith knows what it means to overcome.
A longtime member of the Elks Lodge, Smith and her late husband had been regular attendees. After he died she continued to attend and stay close to her community.
A few years later, she described meeting someone new at the Elks Lodge, her current partner, Jim. “He’s got a head full of white hair,” she said. “It’s gorgeous and he’s just a delight.”
“I was single for a couple of years and saw Jim, and I picked him up,” Smith said. “You just never know.”
Though the pair maintain separate homes and Smith lives with her son and daughter-in-law, she and Jim have cultivated many daily routines together.
“Life is in your hand,” Smith said. “I look at the past and say, 'I can’t change it.' I’ve got to be happy — that’s probably why I’m still alive.”