Toward - St Ignatius, Montana

"....But we are all entitled to

And victims of our point of view

Until we take off shoes we wore

In miles we never walked before."

© Janet Martin

Click here to read this full poem - and more!- at Another Porch.

Autumn Streamside - Corvallis, Montana

“What a joy it is to feel the soft, springy earth under my feet once more, to follow grassy roads that lead to ferny brooks where I can bathe my fingers in a cataract of rippling notes, or to clamber over a stone wall into green fields that tumble and roll and climb in riotous gladness!” – Helen Keller, deaf & blind US lecturer, 1880 - 1968

(Added joy: I managed to not make a splash in today's beauteous scene at the lurching ‘snap!’ of a seemingly sturdy limb wedged into the log jamup!)

Mullein Sunset - Missoula, Montana

The hillside above and below the Sentinel Fire Road in the Pattee Canyon trail system was thick with chin-high stalks of blooming and spent mullein. Then, suddenly, around the next bend, there were none - almost as if the wind and critters conspired to transport these seeds to a limited portion of the grassy, open hills. Since I‘d assumed plenty more of these tall plants would pose for me further down the trail, I trudged back the way I’d come to find a likely subject - and the bonus of cooperative sunset clouds. 
Moral of the story: take your chances while ye may - there be no guarantee of yet to come, or nay.

Winged Window Watcher - East Missoula, Montana

A rare view of the reticent moth, serendipitously seen on a trek upstairs to the church balcony. The daylight through the window detailed its delicate colours and patterns - who knew such perfect fringes edge each wing of these common insects?!

While it's odd for a moth to rest in broad daylight on fully exposed glass, I like to think (fancifully) that our window watcher heard the buzz about goings-on at River of Life and stopped to see it in real time.

Earth Stars Gleaming Bright - East Missoula, Montana

"...Are not flowers the stars of the earth, and are not our stars the flowers of heaven?" Mrs. Clara Lucas Balfour (1808-1878)

Autumn Gully - Missoula, Montana

"...Mountain people are straight and natural, 
minds level though the road is rugged.
Long wind drives pine and cypress trees, 
skims ten thousand gullies and flows out clear...." 
- From "Visiting Zhongnan Mountain" by Liu Changqing (C. 710 - C. 787)

Looking Back the Way We Came - Mount Jumbo,Missoula, Montana

Descending, these hills appear steeper than in this from-below view, and brought to mind a scene from the movie, The Princess Bride: Tumbling tail over tea kettle, The Dread Pirate Roberts (aka Wesley) bellows, “Aaaas….youuu…wiiiish!” Love that movie! But this Wendell Berry poem is a little more inspiring.

“We travelers, walking to the sun, can’t see

Ahead, but looking back the very light

That blinded us shows us the way we came,…”
From
Reading a Sabbath Poem by Wendell Berry