05 October 2024
Best Game Day View Ever - Washington-Grizzly Stadium, Missoula, Montana
29 September 2024
Wildness Reflected - Mission Mountains View From Ninepipe Wildlife Refuge, Montana
“What would the world be, once bereft
Of wet and of wildness? Let them be left,
O let them be left, wildness and wet;
Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.”
-Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889),
from Inversnaid
13 September 2024
Worth the Wait - Mailboxes, Near Kalispell, Montana
Big thanks to Sister #3 for today’s musings & Big Sky view during her recent Montana meanderings.
Rural mailboxes captured my imagination, reminders that some things in life are worth waiting for.
"I love the rebelliousness of snail mail, and I love anything that can arrive with a postage stamp. There's something about that person's breath and hands on the letter."
-Diane Lane in interview with Steve "Frosty" Weintraub, Sept. 26, 2008
09 September 2024
Sun Up, Shore Bright - Peterson Lake, near Big Fork, Montana
keep my mind on what matters,
which is my work,
which is mostly standing still and learning to be
astonished.…”
— Mary Oliver (1935-2019), from “Messenger,” found in Mary Oliver’s collection Thirst
02 September 2024
Sharrott Creek Fire Camp Edge - US Hwy 93, Stevensville, Montana
"…Imitate the trees. Learn to lose in order to recover, and remember that nothing stays the same for long, not even pain…Sit it out. Let it all pass. Let it go." - May Sarton (1912-1995), from Journal Of A Solitude
(Quote find thanks to Austin Kleon in his thoughtful action-inspiring Keep Going: 10 Ways To Stay Creative…)
26 August 2024
Smokey Mountain Canyon - Sharrott Creek Fire, Stevensville, Montana
“Break-through sunlight
filters through wildfire smoke, and suddenly you see the depth of what you didn’t know existed - there is a canyon and a whole other hill where you thought it was just one big tree-covered mountain. And so it often is under the shining light of truth paired with love - you see what you could not see before, your perception widens.” -Cyndy Hull
24 August 2024
One Road In - Tally Lake, Near Whitefish, Montana
“[He] drove the threads of back roads and gravel lanes that knitted the farms and hamlets of Black Earth County together in a loose fabric of commerce and community. “ -The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger , p 103 (Lg Type)
—Click here for more about Tally Lake in Western Montana—-
21 August 2024
Riverside Tall Grass - Hamilton, Montana
“He taught me to pay attention ….[to the] beauty of it all. The way the earth smells wet and raw when it's first turned in the spring or after a summer rain.
How the wind bends a field of tall grass into a moving sea. The creak and moan of trees, like they're talking to one another, or to us if we listen.”
-The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger, p 456 (Lg Type)
07 August 2024
Neighbourhood Blooming Bright - Missoula, Montana
Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird—
equal seekers of sweetness….”
-Mary Oliver (1935-2019) from “Messenger,” in her collection Thirst.)
27 July 2024
Past And Present - Hilltop Above the Dearborn River, Montana
“My mother brought this up in the first week after my father passed away. In a time like that, the past meets you wherever you turn. The days do not use their own hours and minutes, they find ones you have lived through with the person you are missing.” - Jick McCaskill, in English Creek by Ivan Doig (1939-2015), p. 333
06 July 2024
Wildflower Seedhead - Bluebird Preserve Trail, Missoula, Montana
"One kind thing is the seed from which a great goodness grows. It is not hope we hold to, Niece. It is belief in the power of that growing goodness. Migwech. Chi migwech."
-Henry Meloux in Windigo Island, Cork O’Connor series by William Kent Krueger, p. 170
04 July 2024
Flag Flying Free - (& Brewery) - Philipsburg, Montana
“A free will is not the liberty to do whatever one likes, but the power of doing whatever one sees ought to be done, even in the very face of otherwise overwhelming impulse. There lies freedom indeed.” -George MacDonald (1824–1905)
23 June 2024
Summer Sunset Leafglow - Missoula, Montana
Her fond yellow hornlight wound to the west….”
-from Spelt from Sibyl’s Leaves by Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–1889)
14 June 2024
Built To Last - 1901 Cornerstone, Butte, Montana
Strolling downtown Butte, Montana allowed new perspective on this Masonic architectural icon, in perfect conjunction with Monday’s devotional cornerstone analogy. (Thank you, Jennie Allen.)
Also stirs grateful rememberings of turning life corners out of darker trails. (Although I do have a penchant for alley meandering…perhaps more pondering to be had on this one!)
18 May 2024
Fully Present In Spring Garden - Missoula, Montana
“The best way to prepare for what’s ahead is to be present to what is now.”
- Ann Voskamp, in her post “4 Secrets (in Grad Season), At The End of Seasons, When You’re Not Ready for All the Changes”
12 May 2024
Mother’s Day Garden Bouquet - Missoula, Montana
11 May 2024
Mountain Layers, Aerial View - Somewhere Over Western Montana
“It still floors me, how the mountains are not the same any two days in a row. As if hundreds of copies of those mountains exist and each dawn brings in a fresh one, of new color, new prominence of some feature over the others, a different wrapping of cloud or rinse of sun for this day's version.” -Jick McCaskill, in English Creek by Ivan Doig (1939-2015), p. 77
04 May 2024
Bouquets Blooming - Missoula, Montana
Blushing bouquets blooming everywhere, even as’ I donned my winter hat and gloves against the chill promise (we hope!!!) of snow in the hills.
27 April 2024
Dreamy Spring Evening Glow - Missoula, Montana
“…in this old man's vast enjoyment of a simple moment, Stephen felt an easing of the tightness in his chest. He breathed, closed his eyes, and like Meloux lifted his face to the warm sun.
"That is all of life," the old Mide said quietly…”Letting go of the questions. Letting go of the fear that there will be no answers…What we believe we want is like knocking on a closed door.
Better to open ourselves to what we have and what we know. The beauty of this moment." “
-Henry Meloux, in Desolation Mountain, by William Kent Krueger, p. 61
24 April 2024
Lift Your Eyes - Absaroka Range, Livingston, Montana
21 April 2024
Route 66 House On The Hill - Butte, Montana
As a whippersnapper, The Best Husband Ever watched the TV show Route 66, admiring the cool cats who travelled the USA in their cool Corvette. A few months back, we stumbled across the series on Prime and watched a couple episodes for nostalgia sake, including Season 2, Episode 1 filmed in Butte, Montana. On our jaunt to Butte last weekend, we found the episode’s iconic boarding house still in good shape and just up the hill from the Mother Lode Theatre. Travellers to Butte can stay there and enjoy the Big Sky hilltop views of Continental Divide mountains and the graduated hues of Butte’s historic open pit copper mine.
15 April 2024
Stage Set Up - Mother Lode Theatre, Butte, Montana
Balcony view of the band stage setup for 406 shows off some of the many gorgeous lines and 1923 design details in Butte, Montana’s historic Mother Lode Theatre. (Click here to see ceiling detail at top of photo.)
13 April 2024
Looking Up - Mother Lode Theatre, Butte, Montana
07 April 2024
Looking Further - Ice & Stone 6 on Rattlesnake Creek, Greenough Park, Missoula, Montana
30 March 2024
Looking Into - Ice & Stone 5 on Rattlesnake Creek, Greenough Park, Missoula, Montana
"Sometimes a man walks into the night and does not understand why he cannot see. He blames himself for the dark he is in.”
- Henry Meloux in Manitou Canyon, p.107, by William Kent Krueger
29 March 2024
Almost Silence - Ice & Stone 4 on Rattlesnake Creek, Greenough Park, Missoula, Montana
“He didn't hear anything except flakes settling on pine and hemlock needles, a sound that was almost, but not quite, silence.”
-from Through the Evil Days by Julia Spencer-Fleming
24 March 2024
Seeing Inside Out - Ice & Stone 3 on Rattlesnake Creek, Greenough Park, Missoula, Montana
“For the world is--allow us the homely figure--the human being turned inside out. All that moves in the mind is symbolized in Nature.” - George MacDonald (1824–1905), in 1867 essay The Imagination: Its Function and its Culture
23 March 2024
Close Observance - Ice & Stones 2 on Rattlesnake Creek, Greenough Park, Missoula, Montana
“I draw, not to annoy people, but to amuse them, or to make them see things that are worth observing and that not everybody knows."
-Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) to brother Theo (1857-1891) in 1882
(Thanks to Ingrid Schaffner for Iincluding this quote in her lovely & instructive book The Essential Vincent van Gogh.)
16 March 2024
Letting Go - Ice and Stones on Rattlesnake Creek, Greenough Park, Missoula, Montana
“The truth about strong emotion is that it's difficult to sustain. Despite how victimized we feel, it's hard work hanging on to anger, even when it's tinged with righteousness. Holding a grudge against someone is (sometimes) more trouble than it's worth.” - Kinsey Millhone in R Is For Ricochet by Sue Grafton (1940-2017), p. 231
15 March 2024
Night Burgers - Missoula, Montana
09 March 2024
Reflecting On River and Life - Maclay Flats, Bitterroot River, Missoula, Montana
“Rivers are magnets for the imagination, for conscious pondering and subconscious dreams, thrills, fears. People stare into the moving water, captivated, as they are when gazing into a fire. What is it that draws and holds us? The rivers' reflections of our lives and experiences are endless. “ - Tim Palmer, in Lifelines
17 February 2024
Frosted Glory - East Missoula, Montana
"…the really precious things are thought and sight, not pace. It does … a man, if he be truly a man, no harm to go slow; for his glory is not at all in going, but in being." -John Ruskin (1819–1900), in Modern Painters, Vol. III 1856
08 February 2024
Sun-kiss Burns Off the Fog - East Missoula, Montana
24 January 2024
Frosted Walk (and Then More Reading) - Missoula, Montana
“During those long afternoon walks in nature he came to believe that one must shut the mouth and open the eyes and ears, for nature only asked of him to look, listen, and attend.
After the walks: more reading.”
-Young C.S. “Jack” Lewis, in Once Upon. A Wardrobe, by Patti Callahan, LT p. 166
23 January 2024
Winter Sun and Frost - East Missoula, Montana
“…"You don't have to
prove anything," my mother said. "Just be ready
for what God sends." I listened and put my hand
out in the sun again. It was all easy…..”
- William Stafford (1914-1993) from his last poem "Are You Mr. William Stafford?"
(Thanks to Maria Popova/the marginalian for her ponder of this bright light.)
22 January 2024
Winter Leaf Frost and Amazement - Missoula, Montana
I was a bride married to amazement. …” - Mary Oliver (1935-2019) from her poem When Death Comes
21 January 2024
Frost At Eventide - Missoula, Montana
“The day is gently sinking to a close,
Fainter and yet more faint the sunlight glows…
Where Thou art present, darkness cannot be,
Midnight is glorious noon, O Lord, with Thee.”
The Day Is Gently Sinking To A Close (1863) by Christopher Wordsworth (1807-1885)