Suddenly Spring Leaf Light - Missoula, Montana

Watch - daily, fisted 

buds unfurl to full-leaf green. 

Suddenly, it's spring.

- cj hull

Light Shine From Above - Autumn - Missoula, Montana

“God knows I was due a little Light Shining on me from Above, whether I believed in such things or not. Like most people, denying it never got in the way of relying on it. “ 

-Woody Nickel in West With Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge, p 75 

Smokey Mountain Canyon - Sharrott Creek Fire, Stevensville, Montana

“Break-through sunlight 

filters through wildfire smoke, and suddenly you see the depth of what you didn’t know existed - there is a canyon and a whole other hill where you thought it was just one big tree-covered mountain. And so it often is under the shining light of truth paired with love - you see what you could not see before, your perception widens.” -Cyndy Hull

Sunlight Falling - Rattlesnake Creek, Missoula, Montana

“The second day in Oxford arrived, luminescent, the honey hues of sunlight falling from the leaves to settle on the grass like spilled paint. The air was as clear as glass and soft as cotton.”  - from Becoming Mrs Lewis by Patti Callahan, Chapter 12 

Stormy Sunlight - Mission Mountains, Polson, Montana

Stormy sunlight highlights the Mission Mountains - mm-mmmmm! (And a double dose over Polson Bay!)

Light Bright Leaf - Missoula, Montana

“Innovation is not born from the dream; innovation is born from the struggle.

 Innovation, at its core, is not simply about building the future; innovation is about solving problems in the present.”

-Simon Sinek, from blog post How To Innovate Like a Shark

 

Golden & Glorious - Missoula, Montana

With the forecast pushing close 100 degrees F again this week, we're bound to have plenty of golden mornings like this one!

Season Change - Missoula, Montana

What a relief to finally be past that last season - the seemingly never-ending, agonizingly rife-with-drama-and-petty-accusation election season, that is.

Here's to unfettered enjoyment of the remaining glorious weeks of autumn!

Magical Mundane - East Missoula, Montana

"Listen to your life. 

See it for the fathomless mystery it is. 

In the boredom and pain of it, 

no less than in the excitement 

and gladness: touch, taste, 

smell your way 

to the holy and hidden heart of it, 

because in the last analysis 

all moments are key moments, 

and life itself is grace.”

-Frederick Buechner

(P.S. As promised: Saturday's what-is-it photo is of a big Blender; in environmental remediation, it might be used with a Delmag Drill in the ground to mix grout and contaminated dirt to stabilize. Like a giant milkshake mixer.  Kind of. Not quite as fanciful as other imaginings, but still very big and fascinating.)

Barred Blossoms - Missoula, Montana

"The sun shines and warms and lights us and we have no curiosity to know why this is so; but we ask the reason of all evil, of pain, and hunger, and mosquitoes and silly people."

~Ralph Waldo Emerson, journal entry for August 18, 1831

Leaves Extraordinaire - Missoula, Montana

"In the right light, at the right time, everything is extraordinary." - Aaron Rose

Golden Moment - Missoula, Montana

"Living in that childish wonder is a most beautiful feeling - I can so well remember it. There was always something more - behind and beyond everything - to me, the golden spectacles were very, very big." 

- Kate Greenaway (1846-1901)

Sunlit Leaf - Missoula, Montana

"Ô, Sunlight! The most precious gold to be found on Earth." - Roman Payne

(Oh, so especially true on these grey winter days!)

Shadow And Sunlight - Grant Creek - Missoula, Montana

"Poetry is an echo, asking a shadow to dance." - Carl Sandburg (1878-1967)

Creek Greens & Sunlight - Missoula, Montana

“Love is like seaweed; even if you have pushed it away, you will not prevent it from coming back." -Nigerian Proverb quotes 

I rather like this mental image - that love keeps wafting our way in the ebb and flow of life's current - which is not always as gentle as this low-water stream!

Alley Gold - Missoula, Montana

"But I always liked side-paths, little dark back-alleys behind the main road- there one finds adventures and surprises, and precious metal in the dirt." - Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

Pines a la Sunlight - West of St. Regis, Montana

As much as I relish calming grain land views that pull your worries out and away to the far horizon, multiple hours driving through eastern Washington was enough to last me a while, & I was glad to see Montana's tall and greening pines again.