Frosted Glory - East Missoula, Montana

"…the really precious things are thought and sight, not pace. It does … a man, if he be truly a man, no harm to go slow; for his glory is not at all in going, but in being." -John Ruskin (1819–1900), in Modern Painters, Vol. III   1856

Sun-kiss Burns Off the Fog - East Missoula, Montana

As much as I dread driving in it, I love the beauty fog brings - it softens everyday realities, and  graces the trees with an other-worldly reminder .

Frosted Walk (and Then More Reading) - Missoula, Montana

“During those long afternoon walks in nature he came to believe that one must shut the mouth and open the eyes and ears, for nature only asked of him to look, listen, and attend.

After the walks: more reading.”

 -Young C.S. “Jack” Lewis, in Once Upon. A Wardrobe, by Patti Callahan, LT p. 166

Winter Sun and Frost - East Missoula, Montana

“…"You don't have to

prove anything," my mother said. "Just be ready

for what God sends." I listened and put my hand

out in the sun again. It was all easy…..”

 - William Stafford (1914-1993) from his last poem "Are You Mr. William Stafford?"

(Thanks to Maria Popova/the marginalian for her ponder of  this bright light.)

Winter Leaf Frost and Amazement - Missoula, Montana

“… When it’s over, I want to say: all my life 

I was a bride married to amazement. …” - Mary Oliver (1935-2019) from her poem When Death Comes

Frost At Eventide - Missoula, Montana

“The day is gently sinking to a close,

Fainter and yet more faint the sunlight glows…

Where Thou art present, darkness cannot be,

Midnight is glorious noon, O Lord, with Thee.”

-

The Day Is Gently Sinking To A Close (1863) by  Christopher Wordsworth (1807-1885)

(Thanks to Julia Spencer-Fleming for this poem opening her fourth Fergusson/Van Alstyne mystery To Darkness and To Death.)

Frost and Red Rose Hips - Missoula, Montana

Contrasts draw us in, as with red rose hips amidst  slender frost-outlined branches in the lingering evening light.

Fading Treetop Frost - East Missoula, Montana

“We followed a trail into the hills on the eastern edge of the wide valley, our view dominated by the backdrop of mountains dark with the hazy purple-blue of distant conifers.“

 -Thunder Voice, Sam Keaton Series by Sigmund Brouwer, p. 95

Frosted Autumn Street - Missoula, Montana

 Forgot my phone at home earlier this week - Best day ever! ....blissfully calm and productive....

Will-lessly Fall - Missoula, Montana

"Will-lessly the leaves fall,
are blown, 

 

coming at last
to the ground and to their rest.

 
Among them in their coming down

 
purposely the birds pass..."

 

-From This Day collection by Wendell Berry

 

(Blissfully read the full poem here...) 

 

Winter Wanderlust - Bitterroot Valley, Montana

"...My feet tug at the floor
And my head sways to my shoulder
Sometimes when I watch trees sway...

...I shall make the reckless choice
Some day when they are in voice
And tossing so as to scare
The white clouds over them on.
I shall have less to say,
But I shall be gone...."

-From The Sound of the Trees by  Robert Frost (1874-1963)

Wint'ry Community - Bitterroot Valley, Montana

"...But the first thing next morning we reflected

If one by one we counted people out

For the least sin, it wouldn't take us long

To get so we had no one left to live with.

For to be social is to be forgiving...."  

- From The Star-splitter by Robert Frost (1874-1963)

(Click here to read the entire poem, in all it's small-town story charm.)

Crystallined - Missoula, Montana

"But frost, like the crystallized dreams of autumn, began to coat the clearing with its sugar glaze." 
- Victoria Steele Logue, 'Redemption'

Between Shadow and Light, Hamilton, Montana

"There are dark shadows on the earth, but its lights are stronger in the contrast." - Charles Dickens (February 7, 1812 - June 9, 1870)




Click here for current news of Charles Dickens - still making headlines and inspiring birthday celebrations.

Sparkled Curves, Hamilton, Montana

Fan-Piece, For Her Imperial Lord

O Fan of white silk,

clear as frost on the grass-blade,

You also are laid aside.

- Ezra Pound (1885 - 1972)

Frosted Winter Grass, Blue Mountain, Missoula, Montana

“Frost had built on the dead grass, and it skirled beneath his feet. 
If not for this sound he’d have thought himself struck deaf, owing to the magnitude of the surrounding silence.”
― Denis Johnson, "Train Dreams"

Crisp and Clear, Missoula, Montana

“As laser-bright moments; diamond-hard memories; crisp and clear. A future lived, a future savored, a future of moments so sharp and pointed that they would sometimes cut and sometimes glint so brightly it would hurt to contemplate them, but sometimes, too,
would be joyous, an absolute, pure, unalloyed joy, the kind of joy he hadn't felt much if at all lo these twenty-one years.”

― Robert J. Sawyer, Flashforward