Indomitable Dandelions - Fountain Paint Pot Trail, Yellowstone NationalPark

"The miracles of nature do not seem miracles because they are so common. If no one had ever seen a flower, even a dandelion would be the most startling event in the world."

- Unknown Source (which drives me a little bit nuts to have to say...so, please, if you know the source of this lovely observation, help me out with some intel!)

Time's Long Shadows - Yellowstone National Park

"Time flies over us, but leaves its shadow behind."

- Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)

(Note: If you didn't read the earlier Yellowstone posts, please read disclaimer here.)

Paint-the-World Pots - Yellowstone National Park

"Dream delivers us to dream, 
and there is no end to illusion. 
Life is a train of moods 
like a string of beads, 
and, as we pass through them, 
they prove to be many-colored lenses 
which paint the world their own hue, and 
each shows only what lies in its focus. " 

- Ralph Waldo Emerson, from Essay ll, Experience 

Inside The Open Door - Old Faithful Inn, Yellowstone National Park

"Maybe there is more of the magical

in the idea of a door than in the door
itself. It’s always a matter of going
through into something else. But

while some doors lead to cathedrals
arching up overhead like stormy skies
and some to sumptuous auditoriums
and some to caves of nuclear monsters

most just yield a bathroom or a closet.
Still, the image of a door is liminal..."

- from Doors opening, closing on us by Marge Piercy, b.1936

(Read the full poem here.)

Along The Fountain Paint Pot Trail - Yellowstone National Park

"Colour in certain places has the great value of making the outlines and structural planes seem more energetic."

 -Antoni Gaudi (1852–1926)

(Click here to read more about the energetic Fountain Paint Pot area of Yellowstone National Park.)

Rusted - Missoula, Montana

"You know, rust is just oxidation. The same chemical process as fire. Oxygen interacts with steel, electrons drift from one element to the other. So really, rust is a slow fire. Isn't that weird? Water causes something to burn." 
- from Cam Girl by Leah Raeder

(I'm not absolutely certain of this chemistry claim, but it sure sounds cool!)

Industrial Icicle - Missoula, Montana

"...Or if the secret ministry of frost 

Shall hang them up in silent icicles, 

Quietly shining to the quiet Moon." 

- From Frost At Midnight by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)