Spoons - Corvallis, Montana

Who knew that spoons could be dangerous?
Or that what I'd be most thankful for post-holiday dinner was not leftovers but the old world craftsmanship of Thomasville furniture - which solidly held when The Best Husband Ever flung most of the entire 6 feet of himself across the length of the extended dining table to (successfully) snatch the last spoon of the second round?
(Which proves your grandma knew what she was talking about when she admonished you can't go wrong over the long haul by investing in quality furniture and clothes.
And it also proves that we're rather serious about our party games.
There was talk of a Spoons Champion travelling trophy for the next gathering...)

Giving Thanks - Corvallis, Montana

Today, I am thankful for nachynka on my plate - and even more so for the brothers who baked it and brought it from the Great White North!

World Without End - Missoula, Montana

This one's a little obscure: Heedless of appearing daft (welcome to my world, by the way), you are leaning over a faerie lake - well, actually a fist-sized depression in the sidewalk - having stopped to gaze at the smallest golden leaves of autumn, suspended. 
And then you notice the miniature reflection of overhead branches, contributors to this gilded wee marvel. 

World without end, amen.

Cattle Guard - Livingston, Montana

"Over the cattle-guard's rusted-pipe parallel lines
weeds growing through, gatepost designs
geometrical triangle forms
and I'm almost home..."

- from Cattle Guard by Tony Parsons

Click the above text links to read the full text of this poem - and many others - featured at The Starlite Cafe.

Jet Planes Waiting - Neptune Aviation, Missoula, Montana

Morning comes early when you can't hardly sleep due to anticipation....but flying is always fun! I don't think I'll ever not experience a thrill at the moment of liftoff. We take aircraft flight as a matter of course but, when you stop and think about hurtling through the air at hundreds of miles an hour to arrive in the past (we're headed west), it is still an astonishing feat of engineering. As the snail said when he got to ride on the turtle's back: Wheeee!

Go Griz... - Missoula, Montana

Yesterday was a gorgeous day for college football under the Big Sky - as attested to by 26,182 fans in attendance at Washington-Grizzly Stadium - even if the hometown Griz lost bitterly to their cross-State rivals, the MSU Bobcats.  (Sigh.)

Consolation prize: 412,067 pounds of food were collected for key food banks in each team's city.