Looking Up - Yelllow Snow Crocus - Missoula, Montana

...imagining a wee mousie's view of the stalwart yellow snow crocus...

(thank you to thebesottedbookworm for the charming mousie inspiration, and Big Sis 1 for the share !) 

Freshest Blooming - My Neighbour’s Spring Crocus, Missoula, Montana

“And then the light changed, and the vegetation of the ground. It was April and the freshest flowers of the year were blooming under the trees.” - from Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry, p. 351

Road Trip Ready Raccoon - Missoula, Montana

Seems I’m not alone in my springtime yen for a road trip… Another splendid Montana thing: You never know what kind of kindred spirits you may meet on an afternoon ramble! 

Spring Sunshine Melt - Bitterroot River, Missoula, Montana

Late March: We progress to t-shirt weather and not a snowflake in sight. But experienced Montanans know: Wait on planting anything tender, and don’t put away the snow shovel just yet…

Spring Snow Peaks - Near Three Forks, Montana

The one thing you can predict about springtime in Montana: it’s never boring.  Ides-of- March storms ousted the beatific sunny days of early March, adding much-coveted snowpack to many of our mountain ranges.

Spring Snow Day - Near Livingston, Montana

Ahhh, the glorious vagaries of western Montana springtime! 

Snowy Field Grass - Missoula, Montana

“I know a man who walked to the edge of a field on a snowy day…. stood in the pillowy silence and gazed out on the snow-muffled trees … The quiet was simply staggering. The man's heart was filled to bursting with the beauty of it, so he lifted his arms to God, closed his eyes, and worshipped.” - How to Worship A King by Zach Neese, Preface

Marcescent Maple - Missoula, Montana

Hurrah! A perfect new word for this recent snow walk photo: 

marcescent 

(adjective; of a plant part) : 

withering without falling off

(Big thanks to Sister #3 for the sweet word share , via Grant Snider’s charming illustration. 

Snow-capped Winter Tansy - Missoula, Montana

“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.” - The Rosemary Tree by Elizabeth Goudge (1900-1984), p. 158

Connections - Railway Trestle, Bonner, Montana

“Books are bridges, my father had said to me when I was a child. They show how we’re connected.”

-Jessie “Kit” Carson (1876-1959) in Miss Morgan's Book Brigade by Janet Skeslien Charles, p. 41 (LT edition)

Looking Through To Beyond - Missoula, Montana

“The sun filtered down through the canopy… Above its delicate, spreading branches was the sky, which went on forever, it seemed, into a thin, singing blue.”

-Mma Ramotswe in To the Land of Long Lost Friends, No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency Series, by Alexander McCall Smith, p. 90 (lg type)

May your new year be blessed with eyes to see through and beyond and more than just what seems in plain view, and to what the Holy Spirit is saying.