Holding Up The Winter Sky - Lolo, Montana

“I prefer winter and fall,

 when you can feel the bone structure

 in the landscape---the loneliness of it---the dead

 feeling of winter.

Something waits beneath it---the whole story doesn't show.”

- Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009)

Twilight Reflections - Grant Creek, Missoula, Montana

"The shadows are lengthening for me. The twilight is here. 
My days of old have vanished - tone and tint. 
They have gone glimmering through the dreams of things that were. 
Their memory is one of wondrous beauty, watered by tears and coaxed and caressed by the smiles of yesterday. 
I listen vainly, but with thirsty ear, for the witching melody of faint bugles blowing reveille, of far drums beating the long roll."

-  General Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964), from his May 12, 1962 Thayer Award Speech

On Value - BItterroot Valley, Montana

"The cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run."
-Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) from Walden

Winter Snow and Sunshine - Greenough Park, Missoula, Montana

Winter officially - at last! - and there is plenty of poetic odes to this season.

Click here to immerse in some popular winter poetry, including the full text of Douglas Florian's "Winter Eyes", 
and here to appreciate Janet Martin's thoughtful verse for now or any time of year.

"Look at winter
With winter eyes
As smoke curls from rooftops
To clear cobalt skies.

Breathe in winter
Past winter nose:
The sweet scent of black birch
Where velvet moss grows.
Walk through winter
With winter feet
On crackling ice
Or sloshy wet sleet....."
 - from Winter Eyes by Douglas Florian

Authentic Happiness Via Bitterroot Winter Sunrise - Corvallis, Montana

Another glorious Bitterroot Valley view from Big Brother 3, that ponders well with this quote: 

 “Happiness does not lead to gratitude.
  Gratitude leads to happiness.”

- Benedictine monk David Steindl-Rast 
(found in A.J. Jacobs’ book, Thanks a Thousand!)

Winter Bitterroot Range - Corvallis, Montana

Big Brother 3 (BB3) is working above some amazing Bitterroot Valley views lately, and kindly shared today's post pic.
Would that we all had such an inspiring and calming office view!  But for the rest of us, there's always the desktop background consolation prize....
 
BTW, if you've never seen in person the "purple mountain majesty above the fruited plain", Western Montana is always a great vacation destination.

Frozen - On Grant Creek, Missoula, Montana

Stream ice is mesmerizing.
& crazy in how fast it changes. 
This view is along same stretch of creek as in the previous post, but on the very next day, and looking back toward the bridge.

This daily drastic-change aspect observed during my lunchtime walks is making me think how cool would be a photo flip book of the same view, every day, for a year. Bzzzzzp! - you would traverse four seasons in under 5 seconds, and then do it again - bzzzzzzzzp! - and then again, flipping slower - bzzp-bzzzzzp-bzzzzp-bzzzp... pausing to examine a particularly drastic shift....

Years ago, I checked out from the library a small, hardcover book (but not a flip book) of photos taken by a shopkeeper. For years, he walked out in front of his store and snapped a 35mm photo of the same view directly in front of him. His photos illustrated not only how his neighborhood changed - and didn't change - over time, but also how the culture and country shifted and adapted and was at turns neglected and reinvigorated.
It was mesmerizing. 
And so was his commitment.
I personally find it a bit daunting to consider 365 days all at once...BUT maybe even 30 days would still provide enough flippy shift.....the pondering continues...

7 Degrees Below - On Grant Creek, Missoula, Montana

Nothing like below-freezing temps to brisk up the walking pace! But with the sun beaming bright, illusory warmth, who am I to wimp out on a day like today?
 
BONUS: Today's quick-time stride generated a wee, wint'ry poem, to boot: 

winter walk
at nineteen degrees,
 snow squeaks under sole
(and in Celcius
 that's seven below!)
 -ch

Winter Reds - As Seen In Greenough Park, Missoula, Montana

Over the past couple weeks while my workdays kept a pace as brisk as a Montana December sky, winter settled in firmly - if not yet technically.. But I mostly kept my commitment to a daily lunchtime walk, during which I built a nice little stash of sweet winter snapshots to finally share. So, I'm back in the saddle again, & hoping you are still admiring of Montana's daily and never-ending beauty.

Autumn Beauty Tree - Missoula, Montana

"Beauty is one of the
 rare things that do
 not lead to doubt of God."

-Jean Anouilh (1910-1987)

(A bit of a backward stab in this quote...but it does make one stop and think - of the why behind what one believes, on the phrase "benefit of the doubt", of the surrounding plethora of such varied beauty that leaves doubt  in constant challenge, how we cannot assume to know anyone's story that feeds their fear, and how much room there is to give grace....)

Prospective Perspective - Missoula, Montana

“Happiness and joy are not the same thing. 

 Happiness is based on our current circumstances

   but joy is a product of our perspective.”

-Jason Tonn, on November 11, 2018