Not So Cold - Missoula, Montana

"Ah! this beautiful world!" said Flemming, with a smile. "Indeed, I know not what to think of it. Sometimes it is all gladness and sunshine, and Heaven itself lies not far off...Then come the gloomy hours, when the fire will neither burn on our hearths nor in our hearts; and all without and within is dismal, cold, and dark. Believe me, every heart has its secret sorrows, which the world knows not, and oftentimes we call a man cold, when he is only sad."

- from Hyperion, Book III, Chapter IV, (1839) by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)

Flash-Frozen - Greenough Park, Missoula, Montana

Massive slabs of ice stacked willy-nilly block our usual winter walking trail, far up from the edge of Rattlesnake Creek. A sudden temperature change in mid-December created just the right conditions for dramatic flash-freezing, followed by a large-scale shattering and surge downstream, which changed the winter landscape overnight. And, of course, we can be thankful for weeks of bitter below-freezing temperatures for preserving this phenomenon for our continued enjoyment.

Click here to read The Missoulian newspaper's reporting of this winter spectacle.

Small Extravagances - Greenough Park, Missoula, Montana

"The way God squandered Himself had always hurt her; and annoyed her too...Well, of all the spendthrifts, she would think and then pull herself up. It was not for her to criticize the ways of Almighty God; if He liked to go to all that trouble over the snowflakes, millions and millions of them, their intricate patterns too small to be seen by human eyes, and melting as soon as made, that was His affair and not hers. All she could do about it was to catch in her window, and save from entire waste, as much of the squandered beauty as she could."

- Elizabeth Goudge (1900-1984), from The Rosemary Tree

Waiting Winter Trees - Corvallis, Montana

"Oh, they are lovely trees that wait

    In the still hall of winter,
    Silent and good where the Good Planter
Fixed the root, wove the branch delicate.

...And here, too, silent by their side
I stand in the woods, listening, upright,

Hearing in the cold of the long pause
    Of the full year
    What trees intend that I should hear…

~ from Trees of Winter by E.B. White

Holly Green Despite The Cold - Greenough Park, Missoula, Montana

"Still sing the mocking fairies, as of old,

Beneath the shade of thorn and holly-tree;
The west wind breathes upon them, pure and cold..."

- from Ballade Of The Midnight Forest by Andrew Lang (1844-1912)

Amid Noise And Haste - Missoula, Montana

"Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence."

- from Desiderata by Max Ehrmann (1872-1945)


A worthwhile reminder for a new year. 
Happy 2017.