Spring Snow Peaks - Near Three Forks, Montana

The one thing you can predict about springtime in Montana: it’s never boring.  Ides-of- March storms ousted the beatific sunny days of early March, adding much-coveted snowpack to many of our mountain ranges.

Past And Present - Hilltop Above the Dearborn River, Montana

“My mother brought this up in the first week after my father passed away. In a time like that, the past meets you wherever you turn. The days do not use their own hours and minutes, they find ones you have lived through with the person you are missing.” - Jick McCaskill, in English Creek by Ivan Doig (1939-2015), p. 333

Long Sweeping Hwy 12 View - Near Garrison, Montana

 “An old cowboy once told me that memory rides a quiet horse, taking you to the tops of high hills with long sweeping views. Well, this quiet horse would be riding until the day I died, with a view so pretty it would always pain my heart.” - p 299, Sun Dance (Sam Keaton, Legends of Laramie) by Sigmund Brouwer

(Click here to read first-person bits about Garrison, Montana.) 

Getting Closer to Yellowstone…& Spring - Near Livingston, Montana

“…Adieu to disappointment and spleen. What are men to rocks and mountains? Oh! what hours of transport we shall spend! And when we do return, it shall not be like other travellers, without being able to give one accurate idea of anything. We will know where we have gone - we will recollect what we have seen. Lakes, mountains, and rivers shall not be jumbled together in our imaginations; nor, when we attempt to describe any particular scene, will we begin quarrelling about its relative situation.…' “

-Elizabeth in Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, Ch 27

Full Spring Ahead - Bitterroot Valley, Montana

“…but if you never do, don't be discontented about it. We make our own lives wherever we are, after all . . . They are broad or narrow according to what we put into them, not what we get out. Life is rich and full here . . . everywhere . . . if we can only learn how to open our whole hearts to its richness and fulness." “

-Mrs. Allan to Anne, Anne of Avonlea, Chapter 15 by L.M. Montgomery 

Glorious Display - Sunrise, Corvallis, Montana

Awakened by 

 the stirring of the day
Dawn calls to my 

 heart, or so I thought 
Overwhelmed by

  splendor, Your glory on display

I join with all 

 creation singing 

our God‘s 

 praise

- 5 July 2021 Pat Richards.  

    (Thanks for the early-bird share, sis!)

Winter Snow and Sunshine - Greenough Park, Missoula, Montana

Winter officially - at last! - and there is plenty of poetic odes to this season.

Click here to immerse in some popular winter poetry, including the full text of Douglas Florian's "Winter Eyes", 
and here to appreciate Janet Martin's thoughtful verse for now or any time of year.

"Look at winter
With winter eyes
As smoke curls from rooftops
To clear cobalt skies.

Breathe in winter
Past winter nose:
The sweet scent of black birch
Where velvet moss grows.
Walk through winter
With winter feet
On crackling ice
Or sloshy wet sleet....."
 - from Winter Eyes by Douglas Florian

Leafstrewn Sidewalk - Missoula, Montana

And Grant Creek flows directly underneath this little stretch of golden carpet....

Storm Shelter - Along Hwy 200, Near Lincoln, Montana

"The Lord takes care of His own,

 but church trustees still  put lightning rods on the steeple."

 - Evan Esar, from 20,000 Quips & Quotes

Through The Fence - Missoula, Montana

"Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them." 

- Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

Snug Meadow - Missoula, Montana

"I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields, that it kisses them so gently? And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says, "Go to sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again." And when they wake up in the summer, Kitty, they dress themselves all in green, and dance about..." - Alice in Lewis Carroll's Through The  Looking Glass, p. 142

(Yes, observant reader, I've used this quote before; but you must admit it's worthy of repeat!)

The Sri Lanka crew will be cycling around into another set of eye clinics; see the latest update at JourneysWithGod.com .

Retired - Missoula, Montana

"Maybe [retirees] could do worse than give themselves to the world that needs them as much as they need the world.

This may involve things like volunteer work at the hospital or delivering meals on wheels or heading the library-fund drive, but the place where giving yourself to the world starts is simply paying attention to the world—to the people you've been saying hello to for years without really knowing them, to the elementary-school kids hanging upside down on the jungle gym, to the woman taxi driver with the face of a Boston bull and no teeth to speak of who waits for fares at the bus stop, to the old vets marching down Main Street on Memorial Day." - Frederick Buechner, from Beyond Words

Winter Trees - Corvallis, Montana

"She looked at a silver birch: it would have a soft, showery voice and would look like a slender girl, with hair blown all about her face and fond of dancing."- from Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis

Wattle Fence Winding - Rattlesnake Creek, Missoula, Montana

"...And long, winding fences, and gray, rimy stone,

Like living things gleamed; 'til the light faintly thrown,

Died far off in the distance away..."

- from Poems (22.Uncle Enoch) by Elizabeth Fawcett Townsend

The title page notes that the book includes "Poems by the late Elizabeth Fawcett Townsend, Printed at the Request of Personal Friends". The printing was in 1862, a few months after the author's death, according to the lovely and personal preface.

As this work is in the public domain, you can read the full text of this and Townsend's other generously printed poems here, and see the scanned pages here. Should you prefer a first edition hard copy,  John Taylor Books will carefully ship this lovely one to you.

Foothill - A Ways East Of Lincoln, Montana

"Some days he climbed over the foothills of indifference to see the landscape of his life and future for what it was: mappable, traversable, achievable." - Dave Eggers, A Hologram For The King

Sunset Spectacular - Livingston, Montana

The sunset splendour in my rearview mirror increased to the point that I finally turned around just outside of Livingston, Montana, and drove back up to a side road with a clear view to the western mountains. It was a soul-satisfying stop.

Rockies Corralled By Grass - Near Anaconda, Montana

"Westward the Rockies jagged up as if they were the farthest rough edge of the world, but the other three directions flung themselves flat to grass, grass and grass." - Ivan Doig (1939-2015), 'This House of Sky', p. 204

Never Empty - SouthWest Montana

“Even when it stands vacant the past is never empty.” - Ivan Doig (1939 - 2015), The Whistling Season

Fencing The Sky - SouthWest Montana

"There's always another storm. It's the way the world works. Snowstorms, rainstorms, windstorms, sandstorms, and firestorms. Some are fierce and others are small. You have to deal with each one separately, but you need to keep an eye on what’s brewing for tomorrow.” - Maria C. Snyder, Fire Study "

Landscape Layers - North of Dillon, Montana

"For me, a landscape does not exist in its own right, since its appearance changes at every moment; but the surrounding atmosphere brings it to life - the light and the air which vary continually.  For me, it is only the surrounding atmosphere which gives subjects their true value." - Claude Monet (1840-1926)