Spoons - Corvallis, Montana

Who knew that spoons could be dangerous?
Or that what I'd be most thankful for post-holiday dinner was not leftovers but the old world craftsmanship of Thomasville furniture - which solidly held when The Best Husband Ever flung most of the entire 6 feet of himself across the length of the extended dining table to (successfully) snatch the last spoon of the second round?
(Which proves your grandma knew what she was talking about when she admonished you can't go wrong over the long haul by investing in quality furniture and clothes.
And it also proves that we're rather serious about our party games.
There was talk of a Spoons Champion travelling trophy for the next gathering...)

Looking Like Christmas - Downtown Missoula, Montana

"...It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas,
Soon the bells will start,
And the thing that will make them ring is the carol that you sing
Right within your heart..."

- from It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas, lyrics by Meredith Wilson (1902-1984)

Deer's Eye View, Hamilton, Montana

Holiday RePost: 15 December 2011:
This might be the perspective of a deer as it inclines its neck down to drink the clear water of the Bitterroot River, eyes alert, ears twitching to listen for anything amiss.

Eggs and Cosmology

Holiday Repost from 29 January 2012
The asymmetry of time, the arrow that points from past to future, plays an unmistakable role in our everyday lives: it accounts for why we cannot turn an omelet into an egg, why ice cubes never spontaneously unmelt in a glass of water, and why we remember the past but not the future. And the origin of the asymmetry we experience can be traced all the way back to the orderliness of the universe near the big bang. Every time you break an egg, you are doing observational cosmology.

SEAN M. CARROLL, Scientific American, June 2008

(Thanks to K.'s chickens in Corvallis, Montana, for the beautiful eggs!)

Hieronymous Park Canal, Hamilton, Montana

By the time you read this, I will be a fair bit down the road on a holiday that includes 12 hours of driving north to Canada - and the same back at next week's end - with three teenagers. A family reunion and other relative visits en route mean that, realistically, I won’t have any time to myself, so I’ve decided to re-post some old favourites that I hope you’ll enjoy - for the first time or perhaps again. Off we go!

Holiday RePost:  28 January 2012

If you visit Hamilton, Montana, plan a stroll through Hieronymous Park, and bring your lunch - just across the bridge is a picnic table, near the fish pond.