Vast Secrets - Livingston, Montana

"...Father John had come to love the quiet vastness and the way the plains revealed their secrets when you happened upon them unexpectedly - the swell of a bluff, the cut of an arroyo, the patches of sagebrush and pink, blue, and yellow wildflowers."

- from Shadow Dancer by Margaret Coel, page 2

(Minor disclosure: Regretfully, this photo is not from a weekend jaunt to Livingston, but delightfully left over from an earlier trip. Because it's almost the season for delightful leftovers...)

Storm Clouds - Missoula, Montana

"The air is charged and thick....The clouds are squid-ink black, inverting and churning, a river of pulsing bruises." - Michael Perry, Population:485 , p 207

Weather the Storm - Missoula, Montana

The Atlantic Hotel building has been an active locale in Missoula’s downtown business district since its construction in 1902. Designed by famed Missoula architect, A. J. Gibson, the ground floor originally housed a barber shop, saloon, and restaurant. Back in the day, a basic room on the upper floors would set you back seventy-five cents. Today, Circle Square 2nd Hand promises to buy anything - and they sell most everything, too.

Green Hills - Storm Sky , Missoula, Montana

Grant Me Strength
By Esther Popel
Give me the strength
Of verdant hills
Washed clean by summer rain;

Of purple hills
At peace when weary Day
Sinks quietly to rest
In Night's cool arms;

Of rugged, wind-whipped hills
That lift their heads
Above the petty, lowland, valley things,
And shake their shoulders free
Of bonds that hold
Them close to earth;

Of snow-capped hills
Sun-kissed by day, by night
Companioned by the stars;

Of grim volcanoes
Pregnant with the fires
Of molten fury!

Grant me strength,
Great God,
Like that of hills!

Boundary Sentinels, Stevensville, Montana