Summer Throwback - Kayaker Duo - Placid Lake, Montana

Another summer shot I didn't post at the time....Lingering wildfire haze delineates mountain layers and adds an other-world-liness to Montana lake outings.

Summer Throwback - Paddleboard Pup - Placid Lake, Montana

A peaceful Placid Lake, Montana, moment from this summer. Kind of a nice winter reprieve when longing for sunnier skies. (Also totally vicarious, by the way...not my people, OR our pup...just serendiptous strangers drifted into the hazy view i was sizing up!) 

Sun Up, Shore Bright - Peterson Lake, near Big Fork, Montana

“ …Am I no longer young, and still not half-perfect? Let me 

keep my mind on what matters,
which is my work,

which is mostly standing still and learning to be 
astonished.…”

— Mary Oliver (1935-2019), from “Messenger,” found in Mary Oliver’s collection Thirst

Looking Further - Ice & Stone 6 on Rattlesnake Creek, Greenough Park, Missoula, Montana

And this is the last of these shoreline dreamy-ice images, hoarded and savoured a bit too long unto myself, like that last perfect bite of your favourite holiday food. But even with furious snow/hail/rain flurries today, spring persistently advances and fresh views await.

Looking Into - Ice & Stone 5 on Rattlesnake Creek, Greenough Park, Missoula, Montana

"Sometimes a man walks into the night and does not understand why he cannot see. He blames himself for the dark he is in.” 

- Henry Meloux in Manitou Canyon, p.107, by William Kent Krueger

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

Seeing Inside Out - Ice & Stone 3 on Rattlesnake Creek, Greenough Park, Missoula, Montana

“For the world is--allow us the homely figure--the human being turned inside out. All that moves in the mind is symbolized in Nature.” - George MacDonald (1824–1905), in 1867 essay The Imagination: Its Function and its Culture

Autumn Ice - Flathead River, Near Kalispell, Montana

“A river is the most human and companionable of all inanimate things. It has a life, a character, a voice of its own, and is as full of good fellowship as a sugar-maple is of sap. It can talk in various tones, loud or low, and of many subjects grave and gay . . . For real company and friendship, there is nothing outside of the animal kingdom that is comparable to a river. “ — Henry van Dyke (1852-1933), Little Rivers: A Book of Essays in Profitable Idleness
(Many thanks to Sissie #3 for sharing this recent ramble pic!)

Labour Day Rest - Flathead Lake, Big Arm State Park, Montana

“Come to Me, all of you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.”

 -Jesus Christ, in the Bible book of Matthew, chapter11, verse 28