Afternoon Yellow - Missoula, Montana

"All told, she owned fourteen books, but she saw her story as being made up predominantly of ten of them. Of those ten, six were stolen, one showed up at the kitchen table, two were made for her by a hidden Jew, and one was delivered by a soft, yellow-dressed afternoon.” - Markus Zusak, 'The Book Thief'

Storm Front - Near Drummond, Montana

"By early evening all the sky to the north had darkened and the spare terrain they trod had turned a neuter gray as far as the eye could see. They grouped in the road at the top of a rise and looked back. The storm front towered above them and the wind was cool on their sweating faces. They slumped bleary-eyed in their saddles and looked at one another. Shrouded in the black thunderheads the distant lightning glowed mutely like welding seen through foundry smoke. As if repairs were under way at some flawed place in the iron dark of the world.” - From 'All the Pretty Horses' by Cormac McCarthy

Three Breezy Trees - Missoula, Montana

“Through three cheese trees three free fleas flew. While these fleas flew, freezy breeze blew. Freezy breeze made these three trees freeze. Freezy trees made these trees' cheese freeze. That's what made these three free fleas sneeze.” - from 'Fox In Sox' by Dr. Seuss (1904-1991)

Spring Crossing - Missoula, Montana

"I can stand in a crystal stream without another human around me and cast all day long, and if I never catch a single fish, I can come home and still feel like I had a wonderful time. 

It's the being there that's important." - Norman Schwarzkopf (1934-2012)

April-like May - Near Livingston, Montana

"By now it was April, fooler of a month. One day the weather would be what passed for spring at an elevation of a mile, and the next would feel as if it had come from Iceland." - Ivan Doig (1939-2015), "Sweet Thunder", p. 12

Mapley Goodness - Missoula, Montana

As a kid, when our family headed into town for a special treat night at the W & E drive in, I invariably agonized over choosing the best ice cream flavour for that day - but we could always count on my mum getting her standard favorite: a maple walnut sundae. Good times.

Today's pic is a whole other version of mapley goodness - a bursting, bright fountain of delicate flowerets heralds the unfurling of tender-new claret-hued maple leaves. Goodness all around - before our eyes, in our hearts' memories - ours to feast upon.

Reaching To Sky - Near Drummond, Montana

"God writes the Gospel not in the Bible alone, but also on trees, and in the flowers and clouds and stars." - Author Unknown, commonly attributed to Martin Luther