Looking Forward - Grant Creek, Missoula, Montana

"The water you touch in a river

 is the last of that which has passed,
 and the first of that which is coming;

 thus it is with time."
- Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)

Tree Shadows and Winter Ornamentation - Grant Creek, Missoula, Montana

“Indeed the river is a perpetual gala,
 and boasts each month a new ornament.“  -Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), Nature

(Many thanks to the folks at the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System  for repurposing and corralling  a broadly inspiring selection of quotes ...and more!)

Winter Stream Song, Softly - Grant Creek, Missoula, Montana

“The stream sings a subdued music, a scarcely audible lilt, faint and fluid syllables not quite said....” — John Daniel, Oregon Rivers

Pathless Woods - Grant Creek, Missoula, Montana

Here's another tea tag saying to go with your cuppa (& I must say, it's a serendipitous match for this photo): 

"There is pleasure in the pathless woods."

 -Lord Byron (1788-1824)

Winter Contrasts - Grant Creek, Missoula, Montana

Being sick is NOT my cup of tea! But these past 5 days, I've been thankful for tasty tea while fighting off some annoying bleh-ness with sleep, homeopathy, and herbal concoctions (Throat Coat and Gypsy Cold Care teas - yum and good!). 
My main reading in between naps has been the fine print quotes on the tea bag tags, so that's what you get for deep pondering the rest of this week. That and some winter photos that need to get posted before they expire due to lovely sunshine melting every crusted snowflake in sight! 

"Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished."
 - Lao Tzu (6th century BC)

Changing Mystery of Now - Grant Creek, Missoula, Montana

"You just have to live, Ave, and let life unfold. Say what you mean.
You can't always think about what you've lost, or what you don't have, or what you didn't get. Because when you do that, you're missing out on the now...
We shouldn't let a day go by when we don't stop and think about what we are to each other and how the best part of that is the part that changes.
That's the mystery.
And that's the part of people that's divine. Accepting the unknown and trusting it."

 -Jack in  Home To Big Stone Gap, A Big Stone Gap Novel, p 162, by Adriana Trigiani

Inspired Path - Grant Creek, Missoula, Montana

"I see my path, but I don't know where it leads. 

 Not knowing where I'm going is what inspires me to travel it."

-Rosalia de Castro

From Map of the Heart by Susan Wiggs, Part 6 intro page

Perhaps the Lewis and Clark exploration team felt what this quote expresses....and even looked down a similar water-path! I'm extremely impressed anytime I ponder the tenacity of previous generations who forged ahead in the face of varied physical hindrances - and without all our modern "must-haves". There's something to be said for making your own way - and there are plenty of modern-day pioneers still to admire. For inspiration (or maybe more at "whew, glad that's not me!"), check out the latest posts from the Canadian Renegade(s).

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

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

Slim Pickings - Grant Creek, Missoula, Montana

"A fox looked at his shadow at sunrise and said, “I will have
a camel for lunch today.”  
And all morning he went about looking
for camels.  
But at noon he saw his shadow again—and he said, “A
mouse will do.”

-From The Fox by Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931)

Winter Poetry - Missoula, Montana

“Poetry heals 

the wounds inflicted 

by reason.”

-Novalis
 (aka Baron Georg Philipp Friedrich vonHardenberg 1772-1802)