Small Yellow Dahlia (and Bug) - Rocky Mountain Gardens, Missoula, Montana

Meandering through Missoula's Rocky Mountain Gardens, this small yellow dahlia  captured my atention - each petal a perfect tiny scroll, Fibonacci swirled for our delight. (blossoms approx 1.5 inches) Seems the wee bug is a bigger fan, hanging out unfazed through my intrusive camera hovering!

Resting Dragonfly, Missoula, Montana

“This dragonfly came up to me. He was hovering right in front of my face, and I was really examining him, thinking, How does he see me? I became enlightened.” - Ziggy Marley
 
Dragonfly tourists are usually long gone by now, but the fall sunshine cast a perfect shimmer on this late traveler’s wings. I was glad he was tired enough to linger as I edged closer.

Journey, Missoula, Montana

“Hope is like the sun, which, as we journey toward it, casts the shadow of our burden behind us.”
- Samuel Smiles



Complete this sentence for your self:
“A fizzy delight occurs upon _____________.”

Mine reads thusly:
A fizzy delight occurs upon stumbling onto just the right quote to go with the quirky backyard bug picture that was perfect at the shutter snap and was itself a fizzy delight.

Snow Bug, Hamilton, Montana

Family lore tells the tale of all nine of us - 2 parents, 7 kids - making our twice-weekly jaunt to church in a VW bug. Granted, I was at most a toddler, which put my oldest three siblings between 11 and 14 years old. I’m sure it helped that none of us were above average height for our age. And child car seats weren’t yet invented. Actually, I’m not even sure seatbelts were de riguer features at that point in history; there certainly wasn’t a buckle-up law. But, stacked in as tight as we were, it was pretty unlikely we could shift much in any direction. Odds were higher that any potential injury would come from a secretive outbreak of sibling spite - say, a discreet pinch to the nearest leg, leaving the perpetrator undetected by parental eyes and the victim unwilling to rock the boat over a mere pinch. Obviously, the Rolling Stones were long past such childhood pettiness when they sang of getting no satisfaction.