Cool, Clear Water; East Missoula, Montana

Western Montana evening temps have cooled to about 70 degrees F - perfect campfire weather, barring fire danger restrictions, of course. It doesn't pay to ignore Smokey the Bear's warnings.
Click the text link and sing along with Marty Robbins‘ campfire classic: "Cool...clear...water (water!)".

Beauties of Nature, East Missoula, Montana

“Bless the body. Mine has led me into many scrapes, but I’ve led it into far more. If the imagination were obedient, the appetites would give us very little trouble. And but for our body one whole realm of God’s glory - all that we receive through the senses - would go unpraised.…
I fancy the ‘beauties of nature’ are a secret God has shared with us alone. That may be one of the reasons why we were made - and why the resurrection of the body is an important doctrine.”
C.S. Lewis, Letters to Malcolm, Chiefly On Prayer

Blooms of this river bottom wild potato vine definitely fall in the “beauties of nature“ category. Let the beauties treasure hunt continue amidst our everyday.

Waterfront Property, East Missoula, Montana

sunshine 
+ sandy shore 
+ small bucket (or some such) 
= Perfect Summer Afternoon

Willow Wisp, East Missoula, Montana

Smoke from distant forest fires continues to fade the blue of our Western Montana skies and blur the mountains’ features. But summer heat continues as the Clark Fork River lilts its cool and clear siren song to floaters and anglers, swimmers and toe-dippers, alike.

5k View: I Run For Kicks, East Missoula, Montana

This last weekend, our family walked/ran in East Missoula’s 2014 I Run For Kicks 5k/10k, a community fundraiser for school shoes. The route crosses the pictured bridge; on the way back down, the view to the right skims across the Clark Fork River down to the Sha-Ron Fishing Access. If you plan to travel to a running or walking event, check out Missoula’s schedule at both
Runners Edge and Run Wild Missoula. There are reasons the Missoula Marathon has a high rating among the running people - friendly people, clean air, vast skies, gorgeous mountain views, everything essential within about 15 minutes drive…in contrast to a bigger city marathon that features noisy gridlock traffic, congested sky hemmed in by tall buildings - are you convinced yet?