Suddenly Spring Leaf Light - Missoula, Montana

Watch - daily, fisted 

buds unfurl to full-leaf green. 

Suddenly, it's spring.

- cj hull

Springing Up Sheriff Signs - Near St Regis, Montana

For the critical 'location, location, location', Banks for Sheriff picked a winner with this gorgeous green spring field along I-90 near St Regis, Montana - with bonus scenic mountain views! 

While I try my best to avoid politics, they do get my vote for Best Montana Campaign Signage! 

Spring Rain Like Kindness - Missoula, Montana

“Kindness, after all, did not distinguish between those who merited it and those who did not. It was like rain, she thought. It fell everywhere and made everything green and new and alive once more. That is what it did.”

-Mma Ramotswe in To the Land of Long Lost Friends, No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency Series, by Alexander McCall Smith, p. 70-71 (lg type)

Riverside Tall Grass - Hamilton, Montana

“He taught me to pay attention ….[to the] beauty of it all. The way the earth smells wet and raw when it's first turned in the spring or after a summer rain.

How the wind bends a field of tall grass into a moving sea. The creak and moan of trees, like they're talking to one another, or to us if we listen.”

-The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger, p 456 (Lg Type)

Shepherd Hills - Missoula, Montana

A warmer season Montana view for this brisk Christmas Day. Perhaps the shepherds “watched their flocks by night” in green hills much like these.

Click here to ponder more on their experience with Sis #3.  This Christmas, may we be blessed with eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts open to receive our Creator’s truth & kindness.

Mission Mountains Marsh Melody - Near Ronan, Montana

“The marsh, to him who enters it in a receptive mood, holds, besides mosquitoes and stagnation, melody, the mystery of unknown waters, and the sweetness of Nature undisturbed by man.” - Charles William Beebe (1877-1962), The Log of the Sun

Vast Layers - Mission Mountains, Montana

Random thought on today’s work outfit:

Interesting that structured layers in clothing visually reduce (ie you’ll never know I’m perplexed at sneaky fat regions! Well, except, now you do…), but structured layers in mountain ranges visually reveal an inkling of vastness.

Freshly Snow-Capped - Mission Mountains, Montana

Just as suspected: Clouds from valley rain this weekend kissed the Mission mountaintops with fall snow. First fruits of full winter glory...

New Green - Missoula,Montana

I'm always amazed at fresh green sprouts among the matured purple leaves on one specific tree behind our office.
I'm sure it's a normal condition for this tree variety, but I can't help the delight at such an unexpected contrast - zesty brights of spring appearing long after that season has run its course. It begets the same brand of wonder as Montana snowfall in May or September when the previous day boasted 60 degrees F. 

Unexpected, but enthralling because of the surprise. 

If we pay attention, we see micro-wonders of contrast on a daily basis - the complex geometry of a dandelion puff in the weed jungle of an empty lot, miniature bright-hued gravel gems rimming a puddle at the park, the smell of summer rain bursting through mid-July's oppressive heat canopy...Tell me your favourite eyes-wide-open glimpsed glory.

Splash of Green for St. Patrick's Day - Missoula, Montana

Perfect timing for a montage of almost-spring grreens - literally and liberally splashed with melodious melt water.

For endless fun and parental irritation, print them out to make your very own flip book! 

(Yes, these springward sprites were brought to you - again! - courtesy of inelegant crouching. 
For you, I would do this, and I don't say this to just anyone!)

Enjoy the lovely Irish Day!

Celery And Snoring - Missoula, Montana

"Your mother complains about my snoring,
Father said, but she forgets to mention
the times I was awakened in the middle
of the night by the sound celery makes
when you bite into it. At first I thought it was a tree falling
on the house...
but when I saw her munching on celery
I knew I was safe...
My snoring is a form of self-defense—
it drowns out the other noises."

- from “The Sound of a Tree Falling” by Hal Sirowitz from Father Said.

Treat yourself to the entire poem as read by Garrison Keillor by clicking here and then jumping ahead in the audio track to 3:18.

Horse Pasture - Grantsdale, Montana

"But through all changes so far, the farm had endured. Its cycles of cropping and grazing, thought and work, were articulations of its wish to cohere and to last. The farm, so to speak, desired all of its lives to flourish.

Athey was not exactly, or not only, what is called a "landowner." He was the farm's farmer, but also its creature and belonging. He lived its life, and it lived his; he knew that, of the two lives, his was meant to be the smaller and the shorter."  

- Wendell Berry, from Jayber Crow

Spring-Scented Pine - Missoula, Montana

"...and what pushed

and drove and held me;

jubilee leap-

years,

rush of pine scent (once upon a time),

the unlicensed conviction

there ought to be another way

of saying

this."

- from Glottal Stop:101 Poems by Paul Celan, page 100

Bursting Pinks - Missoula, Montana

Happy, thankful day to all who nurture and love unreservedly and listen with great attention to the smallest concerns. 

May you be refreshed and recharged to continue in the good work that is entrusted to you.

Late-Sprouting Green - Missoula, Montana

"Your heart is full of fertile seeds, waiting to sprout." 

- Morihei Ueshiba (1883-1969)

One Day Later - Missoula, Montana

"...Her early leaf's a flower; 
But only so an hour. 
Then leaf subsides to leaf..."

- from Nothing Gold Can Stay by Robert Frost

I kid you not - this is the same leaf cluster as pictured in yesterday's post, on one of the trees I say hello to on my mostly-daily lunchtime walk. The amazing daily changes of spring inspire toward incremental possibles - yesterday doesn't have to the same as today - and for this visible hope we are thankful.

Sunlit Green - Missoula, Montana

"I saw the sunlight in a leafy place,

Bathing itself in liquid green and amber..."

- Ernest Rhys (1859-1946), from "April Romance", The Leaf Burners and Other Poems

Brave Leaf Buds - Missoula, Montana

Oh, the serendipitous joys found on a blustery day's walk!

I don't think I would have appreciated the brightness of these green leaf buds quite as much if the day were warm and sunny (as expected); but their vibrant defiance of the swirling, pushy wind stirred me to pause and make my own stand - at least for a few shivering minutes - to snap their graceful colour and forms in contrast against the solid block wall. 

Finding small joys in small beauties makes for plentiful opportunities to give thanks - in our own small ways, of course! 

Happy (small) spring treasure hunting to you!

River Time Flows - Turah, Montana

"When you put your hand in a flowing stream, you touch the last that has gone before and the first of what is still to come." – Leonardo DaVinci (1452-1519)

Underwater Spring-ing - Missoula, Montana

"Still in my coat and hat, I sank onto the stair to read the letter. (I never read without making sure I am in a secure position. I have been like this ever since the age of seven when, sitting on a high wall and reading The Water Babies, I was so seduced by the descriptions of underwater life that I unconsciously relaxed my muscles. Instead of being held buoyant by the water that so vividly surrounded me in my mind, I plummeted to the ground and knocked myself out. I can still feel the scar under my fringe now. Reading can be dangerous.)" - Diane Setterfield

(Safety reminder: Sit down before you read the latest Sri Lanka update at JourneysWithGod.com .)