Big Sky Smokey Clouds, Big Blue Tractor - Near Ronan, Montana

Construction driving delays near Ronan, Montana, allows the fire-season (darker) version of “stop and smell the roses”…a rather strange dichotomous beauty in the flawless big sky span intersected by roiling wildfire smoke morphing into fluffy high cumulus clouds….

But the prayed-for rain is coming…

Of Fields and Fences - Sealy Lake, Montana

"...Darling, the snow that sweeps the field

And swathes the garden fence

Will soon fall prey to the exchange

Of gold where gray clouds rearrange

The hills that waft above earth’s plains

And the attire of season-strains...." 
 - from Janet Martin's poem "Of Fields and Foolishness" 

Click here to linger amidst Janet's entire thoughtful poem.

Wayside Flower, Middle of Montana

One of my all-time favourite books & movie is "The Scarlet Pimpernel" by Baroness Orczy. A "scarlet pimpernel" is famously described as "...a humble English wayside flower...", and is the undercover pseudonym of the Baroness's fictional hero of the French Revolution, Sir Percy Blakeney. (The story still inspires some hard-core fans, as you'll see if you click on the text links I've included!)

These humble wayside flowers of Montana are more at a black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta).While I haven't heard that they've inspired any literary superheros, they were favourite characters of my childhood walks to town, smiling with unfailing cheer from the grassy ditches lining our dusty, country road.