On Honest Knowledge -Missoula, Montana

“It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance.” 

- Thomas Sowell (b. June 30, 1930)

Looking Toward Joy - Missoula, Montana

“I read somewhere that the Frenchwoman's role is to please others, but to please herself in the process ! This concept is new for me, that my own joy is my responsibility . Only I can receive it , and, likewise, only I can allow others to take it away. Not this Christmas ! I've had my fill of bleak midwinters and now set my sights on joy.”    
-Joan Anderson, in A Year By The Sea, p. 72

Common Things - Missoula, Montana

“One should use common words to say uncommon things.”

-Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)

Orange You Glad - Missoula, Montana

Such outrageous orangey-ness 
amidst our morning meeting feast!

With US Thanksgiving on the horizon,
 timing is ripe to ponder how you might complete
 the thanks-focused phrase: 
"Orange you glad for ________________________?"

(And the above text link provides a few orangey knock-knock jokes to test how thankful your family is to gather together....)

Heirloom Tomatoes- Missoula, Montana

I'm seeing red today - and yellow and interspersed swathes of green: all the best colours of heirloom tomatoes from the Missoula Farmers Market. 
I'm feeling healthier just looking at them!

Oranges - Missoula, Montana

"... I peeled my orange
That was so bright against
The gray of December
That, from some distance,
Someone might have thought
I was making a fire in my hands."

- from Oranges by Gary Soto 

Pear-Fection - Missoula, Montana

"There are only ten minutes in the life of a pear when it is perfect to eat." 

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

(Yes, this is an Asian pear, of the home-grown, Montana variety - the best kind of proof that it pays to be on the good side of the right people at the office.)

Hand-picked Flathead Cherries - Polson, Montana

"...Every fairy child may keep 

Two ponies and ten sheep; 
All have houses, each his own, 
Built of brick or granite stone; 
They live on cherries, they run wild-- 
I'd love to be a Fairy's child."

- From "I'd Love To Be A Fairy's Child" by Robert Graves (1896-1985)

(FYI for the meanderers: Polson hosts their annual Main Street Flathead Cherry Festival on Saturday July 16 from 9 AM to 6 PM, and Sunday July 17 from 10 AM to 4 PM.
There's a cherry pit-spitting trophy just waiting to have your name engraved on it!)

Almost Ready - Missoula, Montana

"Sonny, true love is the greatest thing in the world - except for a nice MLT - mutton, lettuce, and tomato sandwich, where the mutton is nice and lean and the tomatoes are ripe." - Miracle Max in The Princess Bride

First Blush - Missoula, Montana

“The poet believed that 'Beauty' first entered the world not at its creation, nor with the first garden, the first sunrise, the birth of the first man and woman and their first sexual act. The poet believed that 'Beauty' entered the world the day the first child blushed.” - Roman Payne

Flathead Cherries - Big Fork, Montana

Western Montana's regional June heat wave made for a slightly early cherry harvest at Flathead Lake's many orchards. Goody for me, who had to drive up around the Lake yesterday! Nothing like bite-size summer bliss for a perfect snack on a mini road trip to youth camp.

Fall Harbinger, Missoula, Montana

The Wild Geese

by Wendell Berry

 from Collected Poems 1957-1982 (North Point Press)

Horseback on Sunday morning,

harvest over, we taste persimmon

and wild grape, sharp sweet

of summer's end. In time's maze

over fall fields, we name names

that went west from here, names

that rest on graves. We open

a persimmon seed to find the tree

that stands in promise,

pale, in the seed's marrow.

Geese appear high over us,

pass, and the sky closes. Abandon,

as in love or sleep, holds

them to their way, clear,

in the ancient faith: what we need

is here. And we pray, not

for new earth or heaven, but to be

quiet in heart, and in eye

clear. What we need is here.

Almost Cordial, Missoula, Montana

One of my all-time favourite book series is Lucy Maud Montgomery’s “Anne of Green Gables”.
Here’s a delicious raspberry-flavoured excerpt.
 “Marilla is a very generous woman. She said we could have fruit cake and cherry preserves for tea. But it isn’t good manners to tell your company what you are going to give them to eat, so I won’t tell you what she said we could have to drink. Only it begins with an R and a C and it’s bright red color. I love bright red drinks, don’t you? They taste twice as good as any other color.”….
“Now, please help yourself, Diana,” she said politely. “I don’t believe I’ll have any just now. I don’t feel as if I wanted any after all those apples.”
Diana poured herself out a tumblerful, looked at its bright-red hue admiringly, and then sipped it daintily.
“That’s awfully nice raspberry cordial, Anne,” she said. “I didn’t know raspberry cordial was so nice.”
“I’m real glad you like it. Take as much as you want. I’m going to run out and stir the fire up. There are so many responsibilities on a person’s mind when they’re keeping house, isn’t there?”
When Anne came back from the kitchen Diana was drinking her second glassful of cordial; and, being entreated thereto by Anne, she offered no particular objection to the drinking of a third. The tumblerfuls were generous ones and the raspberry cordial was certainly very nice.
“The nicest I ever drank,” said Diana. “It’s ever so much nicer than Mrs. Lynde’s, although she brags of hers so much. It doesn’t taste a bit like hers.” - "Anne of Green Gables", Chapter XVI

To make your very own batch of Aunt Marilla's Raspberry Cordial, check out this recipe - complete with luscious photos! - from The History Kitchen.

Just Plummy, Missoula, Montana

Short wake-up walks before work take me down back alleys in our neighborhood.  This time of year, there's still enough light to enjoy the colours - love these purple plums! - showing in end-of-summer gardens.