Dandelion Changling - Missoula, Montana

“Most of the dandelions had changed from suns into moons.”
- Vladimir Nabokov


...sprouting wiry protrusions, like some crazily rigged cartoon bomb, waiting for the slightest air puff trigger to eject spinning, floating, whirling fragments...

Accumulated Cumulus - Near Butte, Montana

"And see those clouds?'

'Hard to miss'
'Those are cumulus clouds. Did you know that?'
'I'm sure I should.'
'They're the best ones.'
'How come?'
'Because they look the way clouds are supposed to look, the way you draw them when you're a kid. Which is nice, you know? ...” - Jennifer E. Smith, The Statistical Probability of Love At First Sight

Come Along - Missoula, Montana

Sometimes I overhear the music of everyday words drifting in from worlds foreign to me : come-along, cat's paw, shingle froe, adze; copper John, Matuka muddler, bunny midge, rusty spinner. Their rhythms, on a native speaker's tongue, lazily swirl and quaver; it's a little mesmerizing, and worth simply enjoying the language for its own sound. 

Too often we want to understand, to confirm exact definitions, to parse meaning from the alternating minutiae and overwhelming in our lives. That's all fine and good, but sometimes we just need to give ourselves permission to simply be, to experience this 'now' for its own merit, even if we must mine deep to find it. 

Streaming Grasses - Missoula, Montana

"The grass is always greener where you water it." - unknown


What caught my eye: Frondy green waftiness in stream's ebb & flow

Wildweeds Bloom - Missoula, Montana

These wildweeds have progressively bloomed along my lunchtime walk route for the past couple of weeks. The float and shift of seeming whitecaps in a hovering-shimmer sea of anchored green stems draws the eye, compelling me to (finally!) stop for a photo.

Dandelion Wilds - Missoula, Montana

“Dandelions, like all things in nature are beautiful when you take the time to pay attention to them.” - June Stoyer

Spring UnCurling - Missoula, Montana

Bright greens uncurling
Echo the sweep and unfurl of 
clouds against the high blue sky
-cjh