Early Fallen Leaves - Missoula, Montana

Lingering wildfire smoke acts as a photo filter, lending theses curbside leaves an odd, chalky hue. Between the smoke, dry weather, and recent turbulent winds, these poplar leaves took an early out, lining the curb for blocks. The calendar says it's still summer, so I'm hanging on to that!

Good Food Sushi - Missoula, Montana

Last night's Hands-on Sushi class at Missoula's Good Food Store produced a crop of pretty decent first-time attempts - plenty to eat, with leftovers for lunch! 

(My apologies if "sushi" and "Montana" in the same post upends any long held  stereotypes - steak and hearty outdoors-folk still abound in these Western hills.)

Corvair Cruisin' - Missoula, Montana

Maybe I'm resisting that fall is sending out smoky feelers to entangle the waning summer days. Or maybe I'm just overrun by cheesy nostalgia...Either way, so many visual vignettes of late suggest a retro summer memory song. Sighting our friend's top-down Corvair pushed play on "Groovin'... on a Sunday afternoon...". 
I always thought the song was "Cruisin'... on a Sunday afternoon..." thanks to childhood Sunday afternoon drives - albeit in the family car, along slow back roads to town, careful not to kick up to much dust, with high hopes for luxuriously creamy soft serve ice cream. Not quite groovin', but definitely a happy version of cruisin'.

Sunkissed - Missoula, Montana

“I believe in Christianity as I believe that the Sun has risen not only because I see it but because by it I see everything else.” - C.S. Lewis, from Is Theology Poetry? (London: Geoffrey Bless, 1962),164-165.

Read the larger context of this quote (click the hyperlink) from a paper given to The Oxford Socratic Club , in which "Lewis sets out to answer the question, Is the imagination of followers of Jesus so aroused and satisfied by the poetry of the Gospel message that they have mistaken intellectual assent for mere aesthetic enjoyment?"

Dusk Dusted Rowboat - Lake Mary Ronan, Montana

Hooray for blissful sister days at Lake Mary Ronan's Mountain Meadows Campground! In addition to our thankfulness for time together amidst God's beautiful creation, we were very glad that, whilst she waited in the dark for sister #1 to arrive, sister #3 never personally encountered the beastie snuffling in the bushes across the road.

Reserved Parking - Missoula, Montana

"You know, somebody actually complimented me on my driving today. They left a little note on the windscreen, it said 'Parking Fine.' So that was nice." - Tim Vine

Smoke and Water (and A Duck) - Lake Mary Ronan, Montana

Another view suggestive of a classic radio-play song - yah, you know the line I'm thinking of:"Smooooke on the waaater...".

Thankfully, rain Friday night scrubbed clear a crisp morning view of the far shore's treed mountains.