Almost Silence - Ice & Stone 4 on Rattlesnake Creek, Greenough Park, Missoula, Montana

“He didn't hear anything except flakes settling on pine and hemlock needles, a sound that was almost, but not quite, silence.”

-from Through the Evil Days by Julia Spencer-Fleming

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.)