Closer Clematis - Missoula, Montana

My blue-blue non-vining clematis (I call her Clemmy...) continues to amaze with the detail of beauty! Observe how the tiny, twisty centre resembles a thick head of hair a la 1980's crimper! Who thinks of these things?! (Hmmmmm...let's sit on the porch awhile and ponder such things...)

 

Music Lessons - Missoula, Montana

"Unless you're a true prodigy, you're going to have to practice for a while being bad before you get any good. And it will seem like a waste of time. I remember that feeling well. But don't worry about wasting time, because it'll be so worth it. It's my experience that in the end, life lessons and guitar lessons begin to blur in all sorts of interesting ways." -Brad Paisley, Diary of a Player: How My Musical Heroes Made a Guitar Man Out of Me

Check in on the life lessons being practiced by the team still in Sri Lanka at JourneysWithGod.com .


(A big thanks to The Best Husband Ever for being an awesome photo subject AND my favourite rock star! If you click the last text link, you'll get your money's worth in entertainment. Note: TBHE starts out front and centre, then shifts back to center when the gold lame dinner jackets come out.Yah, you heard me - real men CAN wear gold lame.)

Parking Lot Bench - Missoula, Montana

And the somewhat mysterious (or not?) object is...a freshly-snowed park bench out in front of Walmart!  (Which is not a very romantic destination for a Valentine's date, in case there was any question of that... )

As much as I try to avoid WalMart, it was decidedly convenient for late-evening last-minute trip necessities. See where our travels take us in Sri Lanka at JourneysWithGod.com .

Snow Lines - Missoula, Montana

Opposite of bench-warmer...

See the snowless scenes we're enjoying at JourneysWithGod.com .

Snow - But Where? - Missoula, Montana

A 3-day 'guess what/where' series, buoyed by line and colour.

(The where of me 

is hopefully 

Sri Lanka for all three 

of these days... Follow our trip at JourneysWithGod.com .)

Reed Shadows At Dusk, Charlo, Montana

Do you ever favour something so much that you want to save it - the best for last, in a sense? Perhaps the magazine you must read entirely before anyone else paws through it? Or a best-loved book that you hoped could be your own special copy?
 
As a kid, I did this regularly with food on my plate - mashed potatoes and gravy at family dinners, partly because I‘d scooped out a little moat and filled it with Mum‘s great gravy. And French fries when we ate out, guarded against sneaky sibling thievery - still my weakness; the French fries, I mean . (No comment on what this quirk might say about me.)

This photo was taken during an earlier fall drive up the Flathead Valley. Ninepipes Reservoir's shining waters beckoned me to stop and see what there was to see, which included a mystically shifting sunset, for starters (and dessert). I first walked out on the little pier in the fishing pond next to the parking lot. Trout were rising, leaving concentric rings to ripple a different surface section every few minutes. The dusk-shaded depths of the water were intense, with the last of the fish rings fading on the edges. It was so pervasively peaceful. 
So, I savoured this favourite photo, keeping it all to myself for a few weeks. 
But today is a good day to share. 
Happy Friday. 

(But the French fries are still all mine - unless you've got a bite of something else good to trade!)

Share your very own personal favourites (pretty please with a cherry on top!) or fill in the blank:  "Don't even think about sharing my ________________!" in the comments below. 
Enquiring minds want to know. 

(Time-Saving Hint: If you're in a hurry & want to avoid log-in rigamarole, submit comments as "Anonymous"; you can type your name at the end of your comments.)

Runoff Lines, Missoula, Montana

Rivulets
running
coursing
gunning for further
beyond present
pebble-strewn way

rainfall runoff
dreaming big
marked trails
toward someday
zig-zagging down yonder blue haze
- cyndy hull

Bloom With A View - Flathead Lake, Polson, Montana

“Hope always blooms.”
― Amy Neftzger, The Orchard of Hope

Blooming Wild, Polson, Montana

As the saying goes, "Bloom where you're planted" - whether or not anyone ever sees you.

Pastille Blues in Greenough Park, Missoula, Montana

If it wasn’t enough that my streamside perch was on the slidey side of iffy, I peripherally noticed a real photographer - telescoping tripod, massive lens, equipment bag - catty corner across the creek, and seemingly with lens pointed at me. This concerned me, not because I'm shy, but rather due to my  very unladylike crouch - in a skirt, albeit with shorts attached beneath. But none else would know about the shorts, now would they? So, as trained by my modest mother, I self-consciously readjusted to a more modest sideways pose, knees together - and successfully managed not to land, rump-over-tea-kettle, in the creek.
Thankfully, the delight of these cunning candy-blue petites quickly distracted back to the task at hand, and I emerged with this happy shot.

Blues Train, Missoula, Montana

Oh, the lovely lines and patterns that abound in the railway world!

For a dip into the best kind of Montana train mania, check out a current Montana Rail Link fan page here.

Winter Blue Wall, East Missoula, Montana

“All things on earth point home… sailors to sea, travellers to walls and fences, hunters to field and hollow and the long voice of the hounds, the lover to the love he has forsaken.”   -Thomas Wolfe, American novelist (1900-1938)

Wind Chill Reprieve, Missoula, Montana

“Hope is the only bee that makes honey without flowers.”
- Robert Green Ingersoll

Besides getting impatient to use today’s quotation, I decided to post this summer flash-back as a reprieve from sunny daytime temps hovering close to either side of 0 degrees Fahrenheit - before any wind-chill factor. And Missoula is not even the coldest pocket in Montana's mountains. I’m sure this is not what
Mr. Denver was talking about when he sang about a ‘Rocky Mountain High’.

Mobile Sewing, Missoula, Montana

Seems like everything is going mobile
these days, so why not a beloved sewing machine? This ensemble is a new twist on window dressing.

Takes A Licking...., East Missoula, Montana

Holiday RePost: 23 January 2013
I’m not sure about this retro clock, but the stove it’s attached to still cooks it up at the East Missoula Fire Hall. This was the epitome of stylish technology back in grandma's day.

Bucket Brigade, Missoula, Montana

A lone yellow bucket, beaming away amidst the mixed blues and rust.

Is there a story here, I wonder? (Or the beginnings of a children's book... hmmm....)
Was this arrangement on someone's bucket list? (Hahahahahaha! couldn't resist!)
Did it get placed just so to satisfy someone's artistic bent that usually has no outlet in a busy day in the yard?
Or was it just pure chance, mixed with happenstance of my angle of view on a random lunchtime walk?
I have questions. Almost always. Sometimes deeper than these. Or not.

Brush The Descending Blue, Missoula, Montana

“The glassy pear tree leaves and blooms, they brush
The descending blue; that blue is all in a rush
With richness;….”

From “Spring” by Gerard Manley Hopkins

(Love that guy!)

Bee Feast, Missoula, Montana

It's become something of a personal challenge to capture busy bees in a clear image on varied flowers. This task provokes me to be still and focus, which always reaps a feeling of deep satisfaction just from the doing. And sometimes I even come away with a dandy little shot. (I particularly like how the blue hues of Russian sage set off to fine advantage the bee's golden stripes.)

My Groovy Blue Bike

Since I’ve mentioned biking in a previous post, here’s a portrait of my trusty wheels.
It’s such a happy blue - just seeing it in the garage kindles hope for spring.
I bought it at a flea market shop for $15, then had Valley Bicycles & Ski tune it up & replace the tyres.
A cool bonus is that it still has the original Ross decals on the frame, as well as a sticker from The Spoke Shop in Billings, MT.