Marcescent Maple - Missoula, Montana

Hurrah! A perfect new word for this recent snow walk photo: 

marcescent 

(adjective; of a plant part) : 

withering without falling off

(Big thanks to Sister #3 for the sweet word share , via Grant Snider’s charming illustration. 

Looking Up - Autumn - Leaves - Missoula, Montana

“She looked up. The sky was without cloud, a dome of lightest blue filled with air, great swirls and eddies of it, which you could see — just about — if you stared long enough. She breathed in deeply, and felt the fine dry air fill her with a buoyant optimism.”

-Mma Ramotswe, p. 85 in large type edition, The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party, a No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency novel by Alexander McCall Smith

Afternoon Yellow - Missoula, Montana

"All told, she owned fourteen books, but she saw her story as being made up predominantly of ten of them. Of those ten, six were stolen, one showed up at the kitchen table, two were made for her by a hidden Jew, and one was delivered by a soft, yellow-dressed afternoon.” - Markus Zusak, 'The Book Thief'

Mapley Goodness - Missoula, Montana

As a kid, when our family headed into town for a special treat night at the W & E drive in, I invariably agonized over choosing the best ice cream flavour for that day - but we could always count on my mum getting her standard favorite: a maple walnut sundae. Good times.

Today's pic is a whole other version of mapley goodness - a bursting, bright fountain of delicate flowerets heralds the unfurling of tender-new claret-hued maple leaves. Goodness all around - before our eyes, in our hearts' memories - ours to feast upon.

Survivor, Missoula, Montana

 

Perhaps it's the people whose lives have taken sudden new twists - people who have learned to embrace the creative possibilities of change - who stand the best chance of penetrating life's mysteries. -
Hugh Mackay

I like trees because they seem more resigned to the way they have to live than other things do.  - Willa Cather, 1913

Maple Blossom, Missoula, Montana

Maple syrup, maple bars, green wing nuts to stick on your nose for rhinocerous impersonations, summer shade, swishy sidewalk drifts of autumn leaves, Canadian symbolism, fall wing nuts helicoptering to ground… so many things to love about maple trees. (I’m sure you can add to this list.)

My husband has long appreciated the beauty of standard maples. When our neighbor offered a free sapling - well, “free” actually equated to digging it up out of their yard - he considered the sweat equity a good trade off. So we’ll have fabulous shade in about 15 more years - before I even reach official retirement age! But the long-term rewards will be worth it - as long as we can help it survive the neighborhood cats penchant for using it as a scratching post.